China's factory-gate prices rise in January as demand improves

BEIJING -- China's producer prices went up in January amid a steady recovery in domestic demand, official data showed Wednesday.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.3 percent year-on-year in January, compared with a 0.4-percent drop in December 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

On a monthly basis, the PPI rose 1 percent last month driven by the continued recovery of domestic demand and soaring prices of some global commodities, said NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan.

Among the 40 surveyed industrial sectors, 25 saw prices increase month on month, while 10 reported price drops and 5 witnessed unchanged prices.

A breakdown of the data showed that the PPI for the domestic oil and natural gas extraction sector rose 8.2 percent due to continued growth in international crude oil prices.

With increasing demand for winter heating, the PPI for gas production and supply sector rose 3.9 percent month-on-month, Dong said.

Meanwhile, rising demand for electricity consumption boosted the PPI for coal mining industry, which went up 6.4 percent from the previous month.

On a yearly basis, prices of means of production rose 0.5 percent, reversing a 0.5-percent drop in December.

Prices for the ferrous metal mining and dressing sector increased 9.9 percent year-on-year in January, 4.9 percentage points higher than the increase recorded a month earlier.

In contrast, the oil and gas extraction sector saw weaker price declines, which fell 21.9 percent year-on-year, narrowing 5.1 percentage points from the previous month.

The PPI data came along with the release of the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, which declined 0.3 percent year-on-year in January.