China's producer prices rose at the slowest pace in May since March 2021 as the government took steps to coordinate COVID-19 control with economic development and stabilize industrial as well as supply chains in key sectors, the National Bureau of Statistics said on June 10.

China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, increased 6.4 percent year-on-year in May, following an 8 percent rise from the previous month, the NBS said.

The PPI grew by 0.1 percent in May, easing from a 0.6 percent increase from the previous month.

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.1 percent year-on-year in May, flat with the previous month, the NBS data showed.

Compared to a year ago, food prices increased 2.3 percent, against a 1.9 percent gain in April, resulting in a rise of 0.42 percentage points in headline CPI.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell by 0.2 percent, following a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month.

The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed as a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, came in at 0.9 percent year-on-year in May, flat with the previous month.