11.04.201800:56:00UTC+00China Consumer, Producer Price Index Drops in March

Consumer inflation in China softened in March as food price growth eased and the base effect from the lunar new year holiday faded, while producer price growth continued to slide.

China's official consumer price index increased 2.1 percent year on year in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That reflected a sharp slowdown from the 2.9 percent growth in February, which had marked the quickest growth in more than four years.

The data comes amid some worries that an escalating trade dispute between China and the United States could stoke price pressures over the coming months.

China's factory-gate inflation has now softened for five consecutive months, supporting the view that a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy is inevitable, hurt by rising borrowing costs and a cooling property market on the back of Beijing's crack down on debt risks.

Producer price inflation slowed for the fifth consecutive month, meanwhile, to 3.1 percent, down from 3.7 percent in the previous month. Price growth in raw materials slowed another half a percent to 4.1 percent year on year.

The stats bureau also attributed all of last month's producer price growth to a base effect from the previous year, indicating zero new growth in factory gate prices.