(Yicai) April 11 -- China’s consumer price inflation slowed last month, as the cost of food and travel fell.

The consumer price index edged up 0.1 percent in March from a year earlier, according to data the National Bureau of Statistics released today. It climbed 0.7 percent in February to end a five-month decline.

The modest gain was mainly down to lower food and travel costs, NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said. Food prices fell 2.7 percent from a year ago, compared with a 0.9 percent drop in February.

Core consumer prices, deducting volatile items such as food and energy, gained 0.6 percent after jumping by 1.2 percent in February, the most in two years.

The gain in non-food prices slowed to 0.7 percent versus 1.1 percent in February. Travel cost 0.8 percent more after a 1.9 percent jump the month before on the back of a 6 percent increase in tourism prices, versus 23 percent a month earlier, and a 14.7 percent drop in airfares after a 21 percent surge in February.

Food, cigarettes, and wine, the items most sensitive to falling demand after the Chinese New Year holiday, were the main drag on the CPI, Pang Ming, chief economist at global consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle China, told Yicai.

The likelihood of a gradual and moderate upturn in the CPI this year has increased, Pang added.

Factory-gate prices fell for the 18th month in a row in March, contracting by the most since last November. The producer price index fell 2.8 percent, the NBS said, compared with a 2.7 percent decline in February, due to lower domestic prices of commodities such as coal and steel.

Of the major industries, prices in the coal mining and processing sectors tumbled 15 percent from a year ago, those in the nonmetallic minerals industry dropped 8.1 percent, and in the ferrous metal smelting and calendaring sectors fell 7.2 percent.

The decline in producer prices may slow this year due to demand bouncing back and base effects gradually ebbing, said Wu Charming, deputy director of the Chasing International Economic Institute. But declines are highly likely for the rest of the year, he noted. 

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev