China's PPI down 4.6 pct in May

BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 4.6 percent year on year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The decrease expanded by 1 percentage point from that in April. On a monthly basis, China's PPI went down 0.9 percent, according to the bureau.

Dong Lijuan, a statistician with the NBS, attributed the decline to an overall downward trend in international commodity prices, weak demand in domestic and foreign industrial product markets, and the high comparison base during the same period last year.

Friday's figure also showed China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0.2 percent year on year in May.