China's Producer Prices Rise 0.5% in March, Ending Deflation

China's factory gate prices rose for the first time in more than three years in March, ending a prolonged period of deflation as surging global energy costs from Middle East tensions filtered into the economy. The producer price index, which tracks wholesale prices, increased by 0.5 percent year-over-year, according to data released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics. This marked the first gain since September 2022 and surpassed economist forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. In contrast, consumer prices edged up by 1 percent year-over-year, easing from 1.3 percent in February and falling short of expectations for a 1.2 percent increase.

The uptick in producer prices stemmed primarily from rapidly rising international commodity costs, particularly crude oil, which disrupted global energy supplies amid geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East. Officials at the National Bureau of Statistics attributed the change to a combination of imported inflation and improved supply-demand balances in select domestic industries, such as petrochemicals, steel, and nonferrous metals. Prices in nonferrous metal mining surged 36 percent year-over-year, while smelting and processing rose 22...