SHANGHAI, April 9 (Reuters) - China's consumer inflation stayed flat at 1.4 percent year-on-year in March, but was slightly above market expectations.

Analysts polled by Reuters predicted the index would come in at 1.3 percent, compared with 1.4 percent posted the prior month.

The producer price index remained in negative territory at -4.6 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

The market had expected producer prices to again fall 4.8 percent on an annual basis after a decline of 4.8 percent the prior month.

(Reporting by Pete Sweeney; Editing by Richard Borsuk)