People shopping in a supermarket in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, China, April 6, 2024. /CFP
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0.1 percent year on year in March, official data showed Thursday.
On a monthly basis, the CPI went down 1 percent in March. Core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, went up 0.6 percent year on year last month, maintaining a moderate increase, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
The slowing of CPI's yearly and monthly growth rates can be mainly attributed to the seasonal decrease in demand for food and travel service prices after the recent Spring Festival holidays, said Bruce Pang, chief economist of JLL Greater China.
For the whole year, Pang expects CPI to gradually return to normal levels amid short-term fluctuations given improving economic conditions and effective macro policy measures.
A factory worker transferring a batch of new energy auto parts in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, China, April 10, 2024. /CFP
Meanwhile, the country's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.8 percent year on year in March.
The carry-over effect of last year's price movements dragged down the year-on-year PPI decline by 2.3 percentage points last month, according to NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.
On a monthly basis, the PPI edged down 0.1 percent, narrowing from a 0.2-percent decrease a month earlier, NBS data showed.
Dong explained that industrial production resumed after the recent holidays and the supply of industrial products was relatively sufficient last month.
With the PPI growth decline narrowing from the previous month, Pang believed that the path for PPI to turn from negative to positive is relatively clear.
(With input from Xinhua)