Aug. 9, 2012 (China Knowledge) - China's producer price index (PPI), an indicator of the factory-gate prices of industrial products, fell 2.9% compared with the same month of 2011, representing the biggest YoY decline this year, said the National Bureau of Statistics today.   
 
The PPI last month dropped 0.8% from June, reflecting a MoM decrease for the third consecutive month.

Last month, prices of production materials edged down 1.0% MoM or 3.9% from a year earlier. Prices of products in the mining sector decreased 6.2% YoY or 3.7% MoM. Prices of products in the raw materials fell 1.5% from the previous month or 4.5% YoY, and prices of products in the processing industry declined 3.4% YoY or 0.5% MoM.

Prices of consumer goods remained unchanged from the previous month but went up 0.4% compared with the corresponding period of last year. On year-on-year basis, there was a 0.8% rise in food prices, and a 1.9% increase in the price of clothing. Prices of daily consumer goods rose 0.6% YoY, but prices of consumer durables went down 1.2% YoY.

In July, the purchase prices of industrial producers fell 3.4% YoY or 0.8% MoM. The prices of nonferrous metal materials dropped 9.1% YoY or 0.4% MoM. The purchase prices of fuel and power fell 1.7% compared with the same month of 2011 or 2.2% from June.

In the first seven months, the country's PPI dropped 1.0% YoY and the purchase prices of industrial producers fell 0.8%.