People purchase fruits at a supermarket in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, March 10, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

China's consumer inflation eased in March on retreating food prices as economic activities including transport and logistics gradually recovered after effective epidemic containment in the country, official data showed Friday.

China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, grew 4.3 percent year on year last month, moderating from the 5.2-percent gain in February, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices went down 1.2 percent. Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of weighting in China's CPI, headed down 3.8 percent last month.

In breakdown, grain and oil prices were stable, while vegetable prices fell 12.2 percent over rising supplies in spring. Pork prices started to soften as the government took measures to boost supplies to mitigate the impacts of the African swine fever and the coronavirus epidemic.

Prices of the staple meat in China dropped 6.9 percent from a month earlier.

Compared with the same period last year, food prices remained elevated due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, rising 18.3 percent year on year and contributing 3.7 percentage points of the index's yearly growth.

In the first quarter, CPI went up 4.9 percent year on year on average.

Friday's data also showed China's producer price index, which measures inflation at the factory gates, fell 1.5 percent year on year last month.