China’s consumer inflation rate steady at 1.4% in March – govt

BEIJING: Chinese inflation held steady at 1.4 percent in March, the government said on Friday, leaving policymakers further room for monetary stimulus as they try to manage a broad slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy.

The consumer price index (CPI) reading from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was the same as February, when it rose from January’s more than five-year low and slightly better than the median 1.3-percent forecast in a survey of 39 economists by Bloomberg News.