BEIJING, May 10 (Reuters) - China's annual consumer inflation cooled to 1.8 percent in April, slightly lower than economists' forecasts, official data showed on Thursday.
The consumer price index (CPI) had been expected to rise 1.9 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 2.1 percent gain seen in March, according to a Reuters poll.
China's producer price inflation picked up for the first time in seven months.
The producer price index (PPI) rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month's rise of 3.1 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted producer inflation would pick up to 3.5 percent in April.
China has set its 2018 consumer inflation goal at "around 3 percent", in line with last year's target. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill)