BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price deflation continued to ease in August amid a recovery in industrial activities and market demand, official data showed Wednesday.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 2 percent year on year in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The reading narrowed from the 2.4-percent drop in July.

Month on month, the PPI climbed 0.3 percent in August, the NBS data showed.

NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the rise to "continuously improving industrial production and recovering market demand."

"International prices of commodities such as crude oil, iron ores, nonferrous metals extended their upward momentum, leading to price increases for domestic industrial products," Dong said.

In the January-August period, the PPI declined 2 percent on average from a year earlier, according to the NBS data.