China's producer prices down 0.8% in August

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, dropped 0.8 percent year on year in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The reading expanded from the 0.3-percent decline in July, the NBS data showed.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI dropped 0.1 percent last month, narrowing from the 0.2-percent drop in July, according to the NBS.

In the first eight months, the PPI rose 0.1 percent year on year on average.

Factory prices of production materials decreased 1.3 percent year on year in August, expanding from the 0.7-percent decline in July.

Among major industries, prices for crude oil and natural gas extraction dropped 9.1 percent year on year, while non-ferrous metals mining and dressing saw producer prices rise 3.7 percent year on year in August.

NBS senior statistician Shen Yun said the carryover effect of last year resulted in a drop of 0.2 percentage points in the PPI decline in August, while new factors dragged down the index by 0.6 percentage points.

Tuesday's data also showed China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.8 percent year on year in August.