China's producer price up 4.3% in January

BEIJING - China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 4.3 percent year-on-year in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

It was down from a growth of 4.9 percent recorded in December, according to the bureau.

Compared with a year ago, raw materials costs rose 5.7 percent, accounting for the lion's share of the PPI growth in January.

On a monthly basis, the index was up 0.3 percent, down from 0.8 percent in the previous month.

Compared with a month ago, prices rose fastest in raw materials and minerals.

For the whole year of 2017, PPI climbed 6.3 percent compared with a 1.4-percent drop in 2016, ending decline for the previous five years.

The PPI figures came alongside the release of the consumer price index, which rose 1.5 percent year-on-year in January.