China’s factory-gate prices rose for the first time in more than three years in March, in an early sign that the US-Israel war on Iran is starting to affect producers in the world’s second-largest economy.The producer price index (PPI) – a measure of factory-gate prices – increased by 0.5 per cent year on year in March, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.The result broke a long deflationary period stretching for 41 consecutive months, with rising global commodity prices driven by the war and a string of recent policy measures by Beijing likely behind the turnaround. Economists polled by the financial data provider Wind had forecast a 0.46 per cent uptick.Meanwhile, China’s national consumer price index (CPI) – a crucial gauge of inflation – also rose by 1 per cent year on year in March, though the reading fell short of market expectations for a 1.26 per cent increase per Wind’s poll.Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician at the bureau, said the year-on-year rise in the PPI was partly a result of imported inflation, which pushed up prices or narrowed declines in related sectors.“Domestic supply-demand conditions in some industries have also improved, supporting a rebound in prices,” Dong said in an official statement.The PPI had already shown tentative signs of recovery in recent months, as Beijing’s efforts to cut excess industrial capacity and stamp out “involution-style” price wars in a slew of sectors began to pay off. On a monthly basis, the index has now risen for six straight months.