China Consumer Prices Stall With Industry Stuck in Deflation

China’s consumer prices barely increased from a year earlier and industrial prices continued to slump, underscoring the deflationary pressures that remain a key threat to the economy’s recovery.

The consumer price index rose 0.1% in March from the prior year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey was a 0.4% gain. The inflation rate dropped from 0.7% in February, when it had climbed above zero for the first time in six months during the Lunar New Year holiday. Producer prices fell for an 18th straight month.