China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 percent in March from a year ago, a 32- month high, the nation's statistic agency said on Friday.

A citizen buys vegetables at a market in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, April 15, 2011. China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 percent in March from a year ago, down 0.2 percent from February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday. [Xinhua]

The CPI stood at 5 percent for the first quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Food prices, which accounted for a third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation, surged 11 percent year on year. Housing costs jumped 6.5 percent.

"Imported inflation has strongly contributed to the domestic price hike," NBS spokesperson Sheng Laiyun told a press conference.

Prices of crude oil, iron ore and grains rocketed to the highest in two years in March.

"To contain CPI growth to 5 percent for the quarter is a hard-earned victory amid abundant liquidity globally and widespread inflation in emerging economies," Sheng said.

He said China's March inflation data was still lower than 6.3 percent for Brazil, 9.5 percent for Russia.

Sun Chi, an analyst with the Nomura Securities, said inflation pressure would persist for a period of time, which indicated the monetary tightening circle was only in its early days.

"We expect the interest rate will be lifted by another 75 basis points this year. The bank's reserve requirement ratio will be increased by another 100 basis points," he said.

Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday that keeping the price levels basically stable was the primary and most urgent task for the government's macro economic control this year.