China's CPI up 2.3%, PPI up 0.4% in March

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.3 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The increase was up from 1.5 percent for February.

Food prices climbed 4.1 percent year on year last month, up from 0.7 percent in February, according to the NBS.

Non-food prices gained 1.8 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than that in February.

The CPI in the urban areas and countryside both increased 2.3 percent.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI went down 0.4 percent in March, the NBS said.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.4 percent year-on-year in March, according to the NBS.

The pace picked up from the 0.1-percent flat growth recorded in February and met with the market expectation.

On a monthly basis, the PPI edged up 0.1 percent, compared with a 0.1-percent decrease in February.

In the first quarter of 2019, the PPI went up 0.2 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Factory prices of both production materials and consumer goods grew faster in March, up 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent year on year, respectively.

In breakdown, oil and natural gas exploration climbed 9.7 percent year on year, while processing of oil, coal and other fuel posted an increase of 3.5 percent.

(CGTN)