BEIJING - China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 0.3 percent in March from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

It is the first time for the PPI to see negative year-on-year growth since December 2009, NBS data showed.

On a month-on-month basis, the country's March PPI grew 0.3 percent, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

In March, producer purchase prices grew 0.1 percent year-on-year and 0.1 percent month-on-month, the NBS said.

In the first quarter of this year, the PPI climbed 0.1 percent year-on-year, while producer purchase prices gained 1 percent, it said.

The NBS also announced that the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier in March, up from 3.2 percent in February.