BEIJING, April 11 -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.7 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The figure was lowered than the 1-percent increase in February. On a monthly basis, the consumer prices edged down 0.3 percent, narrowing 0.2 percentage points from the month-on-month decline in the previous month, stated the NBS.

Dong Lijuan, a statistician with the NBS, attributed the mild inflation largely to the ample supply in the consumer market as the social production and living order continued to recover in March.

Food prices went down 1.4 percent month on month, easing the monthly consumer inflation by about 0.27 percentage points, according to the data. Specifically, the sufficient supply of vegetables and pork, a staple meat, played a major role in dragging down the overall price level.

Non-food prices remained flat in March, up from the 0.2-percent decline in February, buoyed by the growing demand for travel and increased clothing expenses.

The country's core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, climbed 0.7 percent from a year ago last month, up from 0.6 percent seen in February, Dong said.

Tuesday's data also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.5 percent year on year in March.