YINCHUAN - Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region will increase its minimum wages, currently the lowest in the country, by 24.9 percent on average starting April.

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Minimum monthly wages for full-time workers will be raised to 900 yuan ($137), 820 yuan and 750 yuan respectively in three different regions of Ningxia, said Li Ningshun, deputy director of the regional bureau of human resources and social security.

Meanwhile, minimum wages for part-time time workers will be raised by about 18 percent to 9 yuan, 8.5 yuan and 8 yuan per hour in the regions, Li said.

Ningxia is the latest to join many other regions, including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Zhejiang, Tianjin and Shanxi, in further hiking wages starting April. Guangdong, Shandong and Fujian provinces raised minimum wages in March.

Severe labor shortages, sporadic strikes and rising living costs prompted a round of wage hikes nationwide last year and a new round this year.

China's consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, rose 4.9 percent in February from one year earlier, the same as in January, as food prices surged 11 percent.