China's consumer price index (CPI) rose at a faster rate in April, increasing by 2.8 percent year on year, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on May 11. The April increase rate was up 0.4 percentage points from 2.4 percent in March. The CPI had dropped by 1.5 percent year on year in the same month last year.
Over the first four months, China's CPI rose by 2.4 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, China's producer price index (PPI) grew by 6.8 percent year on year in April, with the growth rate up 0.9 percentage points over March.
In April, consumer prices in China's urban areas increased by 2.7 percent and rose in rural regions by 3.0 percent. Food prices, which accounted for about a third of weighting in calculating the CPI, gained 5.9 percent during the month.
China is targeting a rise in consumer prices of around three percent this year, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao in March.
The growth of China's industrial value-added output was 17.8 percent year on year in April, slightly lower than the 18.1 percent increase in March, the National Bureau of Statistics stated.. This figure compares with 7.3 percent growth in April last year, when the national economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis.
Industrial value-added output rose by 19.1 percent year on year in January-April this year, 0.5 percentage points lower compared with the growth rate in the first quarter this year. The figure for heavy industries was up 19.4 percent year on year in April, while the figure for light industries climbed by 14.1 percent.
In April, electricity generation in China increased by 21.4 percent year on year to 331.64 billion kilowatt-hours, while auto production increased by 34.6 percent to 1.6 million units.