According to the plan of National Bureau of Statistics, China's March consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) should be released on April 16, however, these two economic indicators were revealed in advance yesterday.

According to an official's statement on Xinhua Finance media, the statistics showed that March CPI dropped 1.1 percent to 1.3 percent from the same period last year and PPI fell 5 percent to 6 percent. If the figures were true, March would become the second month that CPI and PPI continued to fall.

As the main gauge of inflation, an ongoing negative movement in CPI and PPI can be considered as an important signal that economy is sliding towards deflation.

For more information, please consult the original article in Chinese: http://www.nbd.com.cn/newshtml/20090410/20090410075413190.html

(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia, April 10, 2009)