BEIJING - China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, returned to year-on-year growth in March, ending a 41-month streak of decline, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

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The PPI rose 0.5 percent year-on-year in March, reversing a 0.9 percent drop in February, according to the NBS.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the turnaround mainly to imported inflationary pressures and improved supply-demand dynamics in some domestic industries.