1st LD-Writethru: China's PPI up 6.8 pct year on year in April

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 6.8 percent year on year in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The stable recovery of domestic industrial production and soaring prices of some global commodities led to rising industrial product prices, said NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan.

On a monthly basis, the PPI gained 0.9 percent but at a slower pace in April, which is mainly due to the decline in growth rate of prices of the oil and non-ferrous metal industries.

A breakdown of the data showed that the PPI for the domestic oil and natural gas extraction sector rose 0.4 percent month on month but at a slower pace due to the decline in international crude oil prices.

In the first four months, the PPI growth averaged at 3.3 percent year on year.

The PPI data came along with the release of the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, which gained 0.9 percent year on year in April.