(Yicai Global) April 9 -- China’s consumer prices rose last month for the first time this year, gaining by a more-than-excepted 0.4 percent from a year earlier.

The headline figure for March’s Consumer Price Index, released by the National Bureau of Statistics today, exceeded the 0.29 percent increase predicted by chief economists polled by Yicai Global. The CPI had fallen 0.2 percent in February and 0.3 percent in January.

The return to mild inflation was due to a considerable tapering-off of the negative carryover effectfrom changes in prices last year, Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS, said in a statement posted on the NBS's website.

On a monthly basis, the CPI slid 0.5 percent, compared with a 0.6 percent gain in February.

Food prices fell 0.7 percent from a year earlier, 0.5 percentage point more than in February. The cost of pork sank 18.4 percent, driving the CPI down by about 0.45 percentage point. Sea food prices advanced the most at 0.1 percent, causing the CPI to rise by around 0.14 percentage point.

Non-food prices rose 0.7 percent versus a drop of 0.2 percent in February. Transport and communication costs were the biggest gainers at 2.7 percent. The price of industrial consumer goods advanced 1 percent in the first jump this year due to a 11.9 percent surge in gain in gasoline and 12.8 percent in diesel.

Editor: Kim Taylor