China's PPI down 2.5 pct in March

BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.5 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

The decrease expanded by 1.1 percentage points from that registered in February. On a monthly basis, China's PPI remained flat in March, according to the bureau.

"Due to a quicker recovery in domestic economic activities and price changes of some commodities in the international market, the PPI remained flat month on month," said the bureau's senior statistician Dong Lijuan. "But owing to a high comparison base in the same period last year, the year-on-year PPI declined."

Tuesday's data also showed that China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.7 percent year on year in March.