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 February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on March 9.

It was unchanged from the growth recorded in January.

The PPI of means of production edged down 0.1 percent year-on-year last month, while that of means of livelihood edged up 0.4 percent, according to the NBS.

On a month-on-month basis, the country’s PPI slipped 0.1 percent in February, a milder decline than the 0.6-percent drop recorded in January, according to the NBS.

Of major industrial sectors, the PPI in oil and natural gas exploration rose 5 percent from one month earlier.

The PPI for cement manufacturing dipped 2.3 percent from January.

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