Workers pack cat litters at a company in Tengzhou city, east China's Shandong province, June 30, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 5.4 percent year-on-year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

The PPI for industries related to oil and gas extraction, chemicals production, coal mining and washing registered wider declines ranging from 14.9 percent to 25.6 percent last month

The decrease expanded by 0.8 percentage points from that in May. On a monthly basis, the PPI edged down 0.8 percent, narrowing from the 0.9 percent drop a month earlier.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the declines to falling prices in commodities, including oil and coal, and a high comparison base during the same period last year.

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In May, 25 of all the 40 surveyed industrial sectors reported price declines, down from 26 in the previous month.

The PPI for industries related to oil and gas extraction, chemicals production, coal mining and washing registered wider declines ranging from 14.9 percent to 25.6 percent last month. The ferrous and non-ferrous metal industries saw their price levels down by 16 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

However, the price indexes were mildly higher for cultural products, plane manufacturing, electricity and heating, textile, and garment industries last month.

Monday's data also showed the average PPI in the first half of the year dropped 3.1 percent from the same period in 2022.

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CPI in flat

Official data also showed that China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, came in flat in June compared with the same period last year.

The figure was lower than the 0.2-percent increase in May.

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In breakdown, food prices rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier while prices of non-food items edged down 0.6 percent year-on-year.

On a monthly basis, the prices were slightly down by 0.2 percent.

"In June, the CPI was generally stable," said Dong.