BEIJING, April 11 -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.5 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

The decrease expanded by 1.1 percentage points from that registered in February. On a monthly basis, China's PPI remained flat in March, according to the bureau.

"Due to a quicker recovery in domestic economic activities and price changes of some commodities in the international market, the PPI remained flat month on month," said the bureau's senior statistician Dong Lijuan. "But owing to a high comparison base in the same period last year, the year-on-year PPI declined."

As domestic production accelerated and market demand improved, sectors including steel and cement witnessed month-on-month price hikes. The PPI for the ferrous metal smelting and pressing industry and the cement industry rose 1.3 percent from February.

Meanwhile, global bulk commodity price fluctuations led to price declines in the domestic oil and non-ferrous sectors. The PPI for the oil and gas extraction industry dropped 0.9 percent month on month, while that of the non-ferrous metal smelting and pressing industry fell 0.3 percent from the previous month.

As the weather got warmer, reduced demand for heating coal led to a 1.2 percent drop in the PPI for the coal mining and washing industry in March compared with February.

Tuesday's data also showed that China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.7 percent year on year in March.