BEIJING — China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.5 percent year-on-year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on April 11.

The figure was higher than the 0.9 percent year-on-year growth recorded in February.

A breakdown of the data showed that food prices saw contraction narrow to 1.5 percent year-on-year, dragging the CPI down by 0.28 percentage points, said senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.

Specifically, the price of pork, a staple meat in China, slumped 41.4 percent year-on-year, compared with a 42.5-percent decrease a month ago. However, the price of fresh vegetables, which skidded 0.1 percent in February, saw a 17.2-percent increase last month, data showed.

Non-food prices rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier, contributing about 1.77 percentage points to the CPI growth, said Dong.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, gained 1.1 percent year-on-year, flat with a month ago.

The data on April 11 also showed the country's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 8.3 percent year-on-year in March.