China PPI Falls 6.6% in April

飞雪寒冰

China's producer price index fell 6.6 percent in April, down a further 0.6 of a percentage point from March, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

The PPI declined 5.1 percent in the first four months, the statistics bureau said in a statement posted on its website on May 11.

The PPI is a measure of prices received by industry for its output. It is considered a leading indicator for the consumer price index, as it takes some time for prices obtained by manufacturers to filter through to the prices paid by the general public.

Crude oil ex-factory prices were down 53.6 percent year-on-year in April, according to the statement.

飞雪寒冰

Gasoline ex-factory prices for April rose 4.6 percent from a year earlier, while diesel prices declined 11.7 percent year-on-year, and kerosene prices fell 32.5 percent from a year ago.

Ex-factory prices for coal mining and cleaning were up 8.7 percent in April from the previous year, while raw coal prices increased 8.9 percent year-on-year.

Ferrous metals ex-factory prices fell 18.7 percent year-on-year in April, while non-ferrous metals prices were down 25.7 percent, it said.

In April, ex-factory prices for aluminum fell 17.3 percent from a year earlier, while lead dropped 36.3 percent, zinc was down 35.6 percent and copper prices declined 38 percent, the statistics bureau said.