China's PPI down 0.3% in 2019

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, dropped 0.3 percent year on year in 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

It was down from a growth of 3.5 percent recorded in 2018, according to the bureau.

In December, the PPI dropped 0.5 percent year on year, shrinking from the 1.4-percent decline in November.

Factory prices of capital goods decreased 1.2 percent year on year in December, shrinking from the 2.5-percent declining in November.

Seventeen of the 40 surveyed industries saw price hikes month on month, while 16 reported price drops and seven witnessed unchanged prices.

Among major industries, prices for ferrous metal mining and dressing increased by 8.8 percent in December over one year ago, while non-ferrous metal mining and dressing saw producer prices rise 1.1 percent year on year.

The producer prices for the oil and natural gas extraction industry ended a losing streak and edged up 5.8 percent year on year in December.

Meanwhile, the PPI for chemical materials and chemicals production posted shrinking decrease, down by 5.4 percent year on year, while that for coal mining went down 3.6 percent from a year ago, said NBS senior statistician Shen Yun.

Thursday's data also showed China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.9 percent year on year in 2019.