Official figures show that China's producer price index or PPI, which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, dropped 1.7 percent year on year in July.
The National Bureau of Statistics said the PPI decline narrowed from a 2.6-percent decrease in June thanks to stronger industrial product prices for nonferrous metal smelting and rolling, ferrous metal ore mining, and ferrous metal melting and rolling.
However, the July reading continued a 52-month declining trend as China's economic slowdown and industrial overcapacity dampened prices.
On a month-on-month basis, July's PPI edged up 0.2 percent.
The PPI figures come with the release of the consumer price index, the CPI, which rose 1.8 percent year on year in July, slowing from 1.9 percent in June.
For more on this, CRI's Shane Bigham spoke earlier with John Ross, senior fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University.
