China's factory-gate prices continue to fall in April

BEIJING -- China's producer prices continued to fall in April as the novel coronavirus outbreak and a persistent slump in global commodities prices combined to drive deflationary pressure, official data showed Tuesday.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 3.1 percent year-on-year in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The reading deepened from the 1.5-percent drop in March, with price declines widening in major industries.

Prices for oil and natural gas extraction saw the biggest drop last month, plunging 51.4 percent year on year, while those for the processing of oil, coal and other fuel went down 19.8 percent.

Month on month, overall producer prices fell 1.3 percent.

The PPI data came along with the release of the consumer price index (CPI), which showed consumer inflation easing to 3.3 percent in April amid retreating food prices as the country fast-tracks the restoration of economic activities amid further epidemic containment.