National Bureau of Statistics: In March, the price of oil and gas extraction industry increased by 15.8% month-on-month.

Dong Lijuan, Chief Statistician of the Urban Bureau of the National Bureau of Statistics, interpreted the March 2026 PPI data. The national PPI rose by 1.0% on a month-on-month basis, marking the sixth consecutive month of increase. The increase was 0.6 percentage points higher than the previous month, representing the largest increase in 48 months. In the main industries, the prices of domestic petroleum-related industries rose rapidly, influenced by the substantial increase in international oil prices. Specifically, the prices of oil and natural gas mining and extraction industries rose by 15.8% on a month-on-month basis, while the prices of petroleum, coal, and other fuel processing industries rose by 5.8%, and the prices of chemical raw materials and chemical product manufacturing industries rose by 3.6%. The increase compared to the previous month was 10.7, 5.4, and 2.3 percentage points respectively, which were the main reasons for the expansion of the PPI increase. The prices of non-ferrous metal smelting and processing industries rose by 1.0%, a decrease of 3.6 percentage points compared to the previous month. Specifically, the prices of rare earth metal smelting and aluminum smelting rose by 11.8% and 0.7% respectively, while the price of copper smelting fell by 1.5%. After the holidays, industrial enterprises and construction projects gradually resumed work and production, leading to a slight increase in demand for energy and steel, resulting in a 1.4% increase in the prices of electricity and heat production and supply industries compared to the previous month. The prices of coal mining and washing industries also rose by 0.1% from a previous decrease of 0.5%, while the prices of black metal smelting and processing industries rose by 0.3%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month.