National Bureau of Statistics: March CPI rose 1.0% year-on-year; PPI ended 41 months of consecutive declines and turned positive at 0.5%.

The National Bureau of Statistics today (April 10) released data for the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index for Finished Goods (PPI) for March 2026. The data show that March CPI rose modestly year-on-year and fell seasonally month-on-month; PPI year-on-year ended a long decline and turned positive, with a significant expansion in the month-on-month increase.

CPI: up 1.0% year-on-year (modest), down 0.7% month-on-month (seasonal decline)

In March, influenced by a seasonal decline in consumption demand following the long Spring Festival holiday, national CPI fell 0.7% month-on-month. Year-on-year it continued to rise moderately, with a gain of 1.0%, slightly lower than February (1.3%); core CPI, excluding food and energy, rose 1.1% year-on-year. For the first quarter on average, national CPI was up 0.9% from the same period last year.

Year-on-year breakdown:

Food prices rose 0.3%, a deceleration of 1.4 percentage points from the previous month. Among them, prices for fresh vegetables, beef, mutton and fresh fruit increased between 4.0% and 7.8%; pork and egg prices fell 11.5% and 3.3% respectively, with larger declines.

Prices of consumer industrial goods rose 2.2%, an expansion of 1.1 percentage points. Gold jewelry prices rose 65.8%; gasoline prices shifted from declining to rising, up 3.8%; prices for household appliances and clothing rose 2.4% and 1.7% respectively.

Service prices rose 0.8%, a slowdown of 0.8 percentage points. Post-holiday travel and labor-related service price increases noticeably receded; travel agency fees, hotel accommodation and airfares narrowed to increases between 0.9% and 3.3%.

Month-on-month breakdown:

Food prices turned from rising to falling, decreasing 2.7%. Warmer weather increased supply and post-holiday demand retreated, leading to widespread declines in prices for fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, pork, eggs and aquatic products.

Service prices turned from rising to falling, decreasing 1.1%. Post-holiday demand decline combined with increased supply led to sharp drops in airfares, vehicle rentals and travel agency fees; prices for pet services, household services, movies and performance tickets all fell to varying degrees.

Prices of consumer industrial goods rose 1.0%, an expansion of 0.6 percentage points. Influenced by international oil prices, domestic adjustments led to an 11.1% month-on-month increase in gasoline prices; affected by a decline in international gold prices, domestic gold jewelry prices fell 3.9% for the first time after eight consecutive month-on-month increases.

PPI: up 0.5% year-on-year, ending 41 consecutive months of decline; up 1.0% month-on-month, a 48-month high

In March, influenced by rapid increases in international commodity prices and improved supply-demand relationships in some domestic industries, national PPI shifted from a 0.9% year-on-year decline last month to a 0.5% year-on-year increase, ending 41 continuous months of year-on-year declines. PPI rose 1.0% month-on-month, marking six consecutive months of month-on-month increases; the month-on-month gain widened 0.6 percentage points from the previous month, the largest increase in 48 months.

Main features of the year-on-year data:

Significant international input factors. Prices in non-ferrous metal ore mining and dressing and in non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling increased 36.4% and 22.4% year-on-year respectively; prices in oil and natural gas extraction shifted from falling to rising, up 5.2%.

Domestic supply-demand improvements. Prices for photovoltaic equipment and lithium-ion battery manufacturing rose 5.2% and 2.5% respectively; computing power demand drove prices for optical fiber manufacturing and external storage devices up 76.1% and 21.1% respectively; green transition supported price increases in industries such as biomass fuel processing.

Main month-on-month performance:

Oil-related industries led the gains.Affected by a sharp rise in international crude oil prices,month-on-month prices in oil and natural gas extraction, petroleum, coal and other fuel processing, and chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing rose 15.8%, 5.8% and 3.6% respectively, which were the primary reasons for the expanded month-on-month PPI increase.

Resumption of work and production provided stimulus. Post-holiday resumption of industrial and construction projects led prices in electricity and heat, coal mining, and ferrous metal smelting to shift from falling to rising or to see expanded increases.

Non-ferrous metals showed divergence. Prices in the non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling industry rose 1.0% month-on-month; within this, rare and rare-earth metal smelting prices surged 11.8%, while copper smelting prices fell 1.5%.