China's CPI up 1.2% in April

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.2 percent year-on-year in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, also increased 1.2 percent from a year earlier, data showed.

On a monthly basis, the CPI climbed 0.3 percent in April, reversing a 0.7-percent decline in March and exceeding the seasonal level by 0.4 percentage points.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 2.8 percent year-on-year in April. On a month-on-month basis, PPI rose 1.7 percent in April, up from 1 percent in March.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the rise in PPI to three main factors: rising prices in domestic petroleum-related sectors driven by international price movements, increased demand in certain domestic industries, and the continued improvement in market competition order, which led to price increases or smaller declines in relevant sectors.