China's factory gate prices rise in October

BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's factory prices continued to pick up in October due to the combined impact of international factors and the tight domestic supply of key energy and raw materials, official data showed Wednesday.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 13.5 percent year on year in October, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

The figure went up from the 10.7 percent year-on-year increase registered in September.

On a monthly basis, China's PPI rose 2.5 percent in October.

Specifically, the rising prices of international crude oil have driven the prices of domestic oil-related industries, with the PPI for the oil exploitation sector up 7.1 percent from a month ago, said senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.

Due to the tight supply of coal last month, the factory-gate prices for coal mining and washing industry increased 20.1 percent month on month, while that for coal processing industry saw 12.8-percent growth.

On a yearly basis, the prices of production materials went up 17.9 percent, 3.7 percentage points higher than the increase recorded in September.

Among the 40 surveyed industrial sectors, 36 reported year-on-year price rises, Dong said.

Wednesday's data also showed that China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.5 percent year on year in October.