China's factory-gate prices returned to growth in March, posting their first increase after 41 consecutive months of decline, while consumer inflation remained mild, official data showed on Friday.

China's producer price index, which measures factory-gate prices, turned positive in March, rising 0.5 percent year-on-year after falling 0.9 percent in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

NBS data showed that prices in the non-ferrous metal mining and dressing sector rose 36.4 percent year-on-year in March, while those in the non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing sector increased 22.4 percent, with gains widening by 6.2 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous month.

Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, attributed the year-on-year rise in the PPI to a rapid rise in international commodity prices and improving supply and demand conditions across domestic sectors.

"Imported factors pushed up prices in related domestic industries or helped narrow their declines. Prices in some domestic sectors also edged up as supply-demand conditions improved," Dong said.

Dong added that new growth drivers continued to strengthen, as the "AI Plus" initiative gained pace and demand for computing power rose rapidly, helping lift prices in related sectors.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose 1.0 percent in March, marking its sixth straight monthly increase. The increase was 0.6 percentage points higher than in February and the fastest in 48 months.

Meanwhile, the country's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose by 1.0 percent year-on-year in March, easing from a 1.3 percent rise in February, according to the NBS.

Notably, prices of industrial consumer goods rose 2.2 percent year-on-year, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous month and contributing about 0.67 percentage points to the CPI's year-on-year increase, NBS data showed.

Within the category, gold jewelry prices surged 65.8 percent year-on-year, though the pace of increase slowed by 10.8 percentage points. Gasoline prices reversed a decline to rise 3.8 percent, contributing about 0.11 percentage points to the CPI's year-on-year increase.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell 0.7 percent in March after rising 1.0 percent in February, according to NBS data. Dong said the decline was mainly due to seasonal drops in food and service prices after the Spring Festival holiday.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of supply-demand conditions, rose by 1.1 percent year-on-year in March versus a 1.8 percent rise in February.