BEIJING — China's producer price deflation continued to ease in August amid a recovery in industrial activities and market demand, official data showed on Sept 9.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 2 percent year-on-year in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The reading narrowed from the 2.4-percent drop in July.

Month-on-month, the PPI climbed 0.3 percent in August, the NBS data showed.

NBS senior statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the rise to "continuously improving industrial production and recovering market demand."

"International prices of commodities such as crude oil, iron ores, nonferrous metals extended their upward momentum, leading to price increases for domestic industrial products," Dong said.

Producer prices in oil and natural gas extraction gained 3.6 percent month-on-month, but the growth was milder than in July. Prices in the ferrous metal mining and dressing sector went up 4.3 percent, while prices in nonferrous metal smelting and rolling rose 3 percent.

In the January-August period, the PPI declined 2 percent on average from a year earlier, according to the NBS data.

The PPI data came along with the release of the consumer price index, which showed consumer inflation easing to 2.4 percent in August from 2.7 percent in July.