National PPI(Industrial producer price Index) data for March 2021 was released by the National Bureau of Statistics on April 9. Affected by rising international commodity prices and other factors, the producer price index rose by 4.4 percent year-on-year and 1.6 percent month-on-month in March. The purchase prices of industrial producers rose by 5.2 percent year-on-year, or 1.8 percent month-on-month.

On a month-on-month basis, the prices of the means of production rose 2.0 percent, or 0.9 percentage points higher. The price of means of living rose 0.2 percent from unchanged in the previous month. Of the 40 industrial sectors surveyed, prices rose in 30, or 75 percent, while prices fell in six and remained flat in four.

International crude oil prices continued to rise, driving the price increase of China's oil-related industries, including oil and natural gas mining industry prices rose 9.8%, oil, coal and other fuel processing industry prices rose 5.7%, chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing prices rose 5.3%. The price increases increased by 2.3, 0.8 and 3.2 percentage points respectively.

Among the purchasing prices of industrial producers, the price of chemical raw materials rose by 4.8%, the price of non-ferrous metal materials and wires rose by 3.8%, the price of ferrous metal materials rose by 3.0%, and the price of fuel and power rose by 1.4%.

On a year-on-year basis, the PPI rose 4.4 percent, 2.7 percentage points higher than the previous month. Specifically, the price of means of production rose by 5.8 percent, or 3.5 percentage points higher. The price of means of living rose 0.1 percent, up from a 0.2 percent decline in the previous month.

Among the major industries, the price of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry increased by 21.5 percent, or 7.4 percentage points; Non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, up 21.3 percent, or 9.2 percentage points; And the manufacturing of chemical raw materials and chemical products, up 11.4 percent, or 7.4 percentage points. The oil and natural gas extraction industry switched from declining to rising, up 23.7 percent; Oil, coal and other fuel processing industry, up 13.9 percent; And electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, up 1.0 percent. Coal mining and washing prices rose 6.9 percent, or 4.0 percentage points lower.

Among the purchasing prices of industrial producers, the prices of non-ferrous metal materials and wires rose by 17.3 percent, the prices of ferrous metal materials rose by 15.6 percent, the prices of chemical raw materials rose by 7.1 percent, and the prices of fuel and power plants rose by 2.7 percent.

1— On average, producer prices rose 2.1 percent in March from a year earlier, while producer purchase prices rose 2.8 percent. Among them, the manufacturing prices of chemical raw materials and chemical products rose by 5.5 percent.