China factory-gate inflation continues to ease

China's producer price inflation continued to ease in May as commodity price declines dragged down factory-gate costs, official data showed Friday.

Workers working at a factory [File Photo: IC]

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, rose 5.5 percent year on year last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The pace retreated from the 6.4 percent growth registered in April and 7.6 percent in March. The index increased 7.8 percent from a year ago in February, the fastest since 2008.

Month on month, the PPI edged down 0.3 percent, narrowing from the 0.4 percent decline in April.

Factory-gate price declines in the ferrous metal mining and non-ferrous metal smelting industries widened to 4.1 percent and 0.9 percent from a month earlier, respectively, noted NBS senior statistician Sheng Guoqing. Meanwhile, price drops in the oil and gas extraction industry moderated and price gains in the coal mining ended.

China's PPI has stayed in positive territory since September, when it ended a four-year streak of declines, partly due to the government's successful campaign to cut industrial overcapacity, which benefited the wider economy.

The PPI figures came alongside the release of the consumer price index, which rose 1.5 percent year on year in May.