BEIJING, April 10 -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, was down 0.1 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

This figure represents an improvement compared to the 0.7-percent decline recorded in February. NBS attributed the improvement to the impact of policies designed to boost consumption, which are starting to take effect.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan highlighted the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.5 percent from a year ago in March, a significant recovery from the 0.1-percent drop in February.

The prices in urban areas and rural areas decreased by 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent year on year, respectively, the NBS data showed.

Breaking down the data, food prices dropped 1.4 percent year on year, primarily due to an ample food supply. Non-food prices saw a modest increase of 0.2 percent year on year.

Consumer goods prices decreased 0.4 percent year on year and service prices gained 0.3 percent year on year last month, data showed.

From January to March, on average, the national consumer prices decreased 0.1 percent over the same period last year.

On a monthly basis, the CPI dropped 0.4 percent in March, the NBS data showed.