BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- 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, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

 

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the changes in CPI data to seasonal easing of consumer demand and generally sufficient market supply in the month after the Spring Festival.

 

Year-on-year CPI growth shrank 0.6 percentage points in March compared with the previous month, mainly due to the drop in food and travel service prices, Dong said.

 

Overall, food prices went down 2.7 percent year on year in March, with the pace of decrease widening by 1.8 percentage points from February, according to the NBS.

 

Prices of eggs, fresh fruits, beef and mutton fell 10.4 percent, 8.5 percent, 8.4 percent and 6 percent year on year, respectively.

 

Non-food prices went up 0.7 percent year on year in March, compared to a 1.1-percent increase in the previous month, with prices of tourism services plummeting from a 23.1-percent growth to a 6-percent growth, and that of air tickets reversing the uptick to a decline of 14.7 percent.

 

The core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, went up 0.6 percent year on year last month, maintaining a mild increase, according to the NBS.

 

Thursday's data also showed that China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.8 percent year on year in March.