China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.3 percent in March compared with a year ago, Li Xiaochao, spokesman with the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Thursday.

The index, a main gauge of inflation, is the highest in 25 months after it hit 3.9 percent in February 2005.

Li said at a news conference that the consumer price index in the first quarter of this year climbed 2.7 percent, 1.5 percent higher than for the first three months last year.

He said the CPI in March was 0.3 percent lower compared with February, adding that food prices had soared 6.2 percent between January and March.

"The overall prices remain stable, but there exists inflation pressures as grain and oil prices remain high," he said. The Chinese government has set a target of three percent for this year's CPI.

Cai Zhizhou, a researcher with Peking University, said the government should pay more attention to the grain and oil prices, the major drivers of inflation, as they were very high compared with early last year.

Zhuang Jian, Beijing-based economist with the Asian Development Bank, said the rapid economic growth, the abundant liquidity and rising household incomes all contributed to the inflation surge.

"Inflationary pressure will continue to build as there is scant possibility of grain price cuts, while prices of gas, electricity and water are set to rise in the future," Zhuang said.

Li noted China's GDP expanded 11.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. He added that the M2, the broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation plus all deposits, jumped 17.3 percent to 36.41 trillion yuan (4.72 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of March.

He said that China would continue to strengthen macro-control measures to solve problems that include excessive liquidity and a huge international payments surplus.

Analysts said the huge payments and trade surpluses had boosted liquidity, which had in turn fueled inflation. China's trade surplus reached 46.4 billion yuan in the first quarter, double that of the same period last year.

(one U.S. dollar equals 7.7199 yuan)

Source: Xinhua