China's PPI up 3.5% in July

BEIJING -- China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 3.5 percent year-on-year in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday.

On a month-on-month basis, PPI dipped 0.7 percent last month, the NBS data showed.

Analyzing the monthly changes, NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said imported factors weighed on prices in some industries, seasonal factors, including high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and typhoons slowed construction activity and pulled down prices in certain sectors, while industrial transformation and consumption upgrading boosted demand and drove up prices in others.

Sunday's data also showed that China's consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, rose 0.5 percent year-on-year in July.