On a month-on-month basis, no factory-gate price growth or decline was registered in March

The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, rose by 0.7 percent year-on-year in March, up from a rise of 0.6 percent in February.

Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, said the consumer inflation eased in March due to continued resumption of production and life as well as sufficient market supplies, while the fall in factory-gate prices was affected by a high comparison base in the previous year.

The producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, was down 2.5 percent from a year earlier in March, compared with a 1.4 percent annual contraction seen in February, the NBS said.

On a month-on-month basis, no factory-gate price growth or decline was registered in March, said the NBS.