Workers assemble an automobile at the production line of Weichai New Energy Commercial Vehicle Co Ltd in Wendeng district of Weihai city, east China's Shandong province, July 21, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 4.4 percent year-on-year in July, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

The decrease narrowed from a 5.4-percent drop registered in June. On a monthly basis, the July PPI fell 0.2 percent, compared to a decrease of 0.8 percent registered in June, NBS data showed.

In the first seven months of 2023, the PPI went down 3.2 percent year-on-year.

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People select vegetables at a supermarket in Huimin county, east China's Shandong province, July 10, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

CPI logs monthly increase

Wednesday's date also showed that China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.2 percent in July compared with that in June.

On a yearly basis, China's CPI declined 0.3 percent due to a high base in the corresponding period of 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics 

In breakdown, the food prices declined 1 percent month-on-month, but the prices of non-food items rose 0.5 percent on a monthly basis.

The NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the monthly increase to continued recovery of consumer demand.

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On a yearly basis, the country's CPI declined 0.3 percent due to a high base in the corresponding period of 2022, according to Dong.

The core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, rose 0.8 percent year-on-year, with the pace of increase widening by 0.4 percentage points compared with that in June.

The average CPI from January to July increased by 0.5 percent year-on-year.