China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1 percent year-on-year in March, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 1.1 percent year-on-year, the data revealed. On a month-on-month basis, CPI fell 0.7 percent in March.

Friday's data also showed that the producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, edged up 0.5 percent year-on-year last month, the first increase following 41 straight months of declines, according to the NBS.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the turnaround mainly to imported inflationary pressures and improved supply-demand dynamics in some domestic industries.