Wang Youdong, director of the Urban Socioeconomic Survey Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that in the first quarter, the CPI was the same as the same period last year, and the overall operation was stable. Due to factors such as the wrong month for the Spring Festival, CPI fluctuated from month to month. On a monthly basis, in January, due to the high comparison base for the same period last year, CPI fell 0.8% year on year; in February, CPI rose 0.7% year on year due to Spring Festival factors; in March, consumer demand fell seasonally after the holiday season, and overall sufficient market supply, the CPI increase fell back to 0.1% year on year. In the first quarter, the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.7% year over year, maintaining a moderate increase. Prices in the production sector were low. In the first quarter, PPI fell 2.7% compared to the same period last year. On a monthly basis, the month-on-month decline narrowed, and the year-on-year decline increased. In January and February, PPI fell 0.2% month-on-month due to factors such as the Spring Festival holiday. In March, industrial production resumed after the holiday season, and the PPI decline narrowed to 0.1% month-on-month; the year-on-year decline in PPI increased from 2.5% in January to 2.8% in March. (National Bureau of Statistics)