May. 11, 2012 (China Knowledge) - China's producer price index (PPI), an indicator of the factory-gate prices of industrial products, grew fell 0.7% compared with the same month of 2011, representing the biggest year-on-year decline in one year, said the National Bureau of Statistics today.   
 
The PPI last month grew 0.2% from March, reflecting a month-on-month increase for the third consecutive month.
 
Last month, prices of production materials edged up 0.2% month on month but fell 1.2% from a year earlier. Prices of products in the mining sector increased 2.2% year on year and 1.2% month on month. Prices of products in the raw materials rose 0.4% from the previous month or 0.1% year on year, and prices of products in the processing industry remained unchanged compared with March but declined 2.2% compared with a year earlier.
   
Prices of consumer goods rose 0.1% from the previous month and went up 1.1% compared with the corresponding period of last year. On year-on-year basis, there was a 2.2% rise in food prices, and a 2.1% increase in the price of clothing. Prices of daily consumer goods rose 1.1% year on year, but prices of consumer durables went down 1.1% year on year.

Last month, the purchase prices of industrial producers fell 0.8% year on year. The prices of nonferrous metal materials dropped 5.7% year on year or 0.8% month on month. The purchase prices of fuel and power rose 3.4% year on year and 0.7% month on month in April.

In the first four months, the country's PPI dropped 0.1% year on year and the purchase prices of industrial producers rose 0.6%.