China's CPI up 2.3 pct in March

BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.3 percent year on year in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The increase was up from 1.5 percent for February.

Food prices climbed 4.1 percent year on year last month, up from 0.7 percent in February, according to the NBS.

Non-food prices gained 1.8 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than that in February.

The CPI in the urban areas and countryside both increased 2.3 percent.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI went down 0.4 percent in March, the NBS said.