China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1 percent year on year in March, official data showed Friday.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 1.1 percent year on year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a month-on-month basis, CPI fell 0.7 percent in March, the data revealed.

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.