China's inflation rate accelerated to 2.4 percent year-on-year in March, the government said Friday, driven by higher food prices.
The increase in the consumer price index (CPI) announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was up from the 2.0 percent recorded in February, but marginally below economist forecasts of 2.5 percent reported by Dow Jones Newswires.
Food prices rose 4.1 percent in March from the year before, the NBS said.
The acceleration in inflation may assuage economists' concerns that the risk of deflation in the world's second-largest economy was rising after February's figure.
China's CPI, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.6 percent in 2013, unchanged from 2012 and well below the 3.5 percent target set by the government.
The government kept the inflation goal for this year unchanged last month.
China’s inflation rate accelerated to 2.4 percent year-on-year in March, the government said Friday, driven by higher food prices.
The increase in the consumer price index (CPI) announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was up from the 2.0 percent recorded in February, but marginally below economist forecasts of 2.5 percent reported by Dow Jones Newswires.
Food prices rose 4.1 percent in March from the year before, the NBS said.
The acceleration in inflation may assuage economists’ concerns that the risk of deflation in the world’s second-largest economy was rising after February’s figure.
China’s CPI, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.6 percent in 2013, unchanged from 2012 and well below the 3.5 percent target set by the government.
The government kept the inflation goal for this year unchanged last month.
