China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 2.4 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The figure was down 0.7 percent compared from the previous month, and for the first quarter, up 2.2 percent from the same period last year, NBS spokesman Li Xiaochao said.

The producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 5.9 percent in March from a year earlier.

China's PPI rose 5.2 percent year on year in the first quarter, the NBS said.

In the first quarter, consumer prices in urban areas increased 2.1 percent while rural regions' consumer prices rose by 2.4 percent. Food prices, which accounted for about a third of the CPI, gained 5.1 percent.

"China's consumer prices are currently stable," Li said.

He attributed the rise in CPI to the "tail-raising factor," or the relatively low comparison basis of the first quarter of 2009.

The tail-raising factor, which refers to the influence of price changes last year on the year-on-year figures this year, lifted first quarter CPI growth by one percentage point, he said.
Bad weather was another important factor, Li said, as the freezing winter brought dramatic rises in food prices, which accounted for 1.64 percentage points, or 70 percent of first quarter inflation.

Li also noted that other factors - rising international commodity prices, domestic producer prices and industrial costs - have also started to push up the CPI.

China is targeting a rise in consumer prices of around 3 percent this year, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao last month at the annual parliamentary session.

It will be "difficult and challenging" to achieve the inflation goal, but the 3-percent target is still within reach with "concerted efforts and solid work," Li said.

China's CPI ended nine months of decline in November last year, when it rose 0.6 percent, as the nation's economy rebounded strongly.