BEIJING — China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, edged up 0.1 percent year-on-year in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Feb 15.

It was down from a growth of 0.9 percent recorded in December.

The prices of means of production entered the negative zone, edging down 0.1 percent year-on-year last month, according to the NBS.

Of major industrial sectors, the PPI in oil and natural gas exploration dipped 5 percent, compared with an increase in December.

The PPI for non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling declined 3.5 percent, a sharper decrease than the 2.3-percent fall recorded in December.

On a month-on-month basis, the country’s PPI slipped 0.6 percent in January, a milder decline than the 1-percent drop recorded in December, according to the NBS.

Last year, China’s PPI rose 3.5 percent, down from the 6.3-percent growth in 2017.

The data on Feb 15 also showed a 1.7-percent year-on-year rise in the country’s consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, in January, down from a 1.9-percent increase for December.