China factory gate inflation up in April

Beijing: Chinese factory gate prices rose in April to snap five months of falling, data showed on Thursday, but analysts said the downtrend would likely continue as government anti-pollution measures are lifted. Inflation hit a nine-year high in 2017 on restrictions of heavy industry production by authorities to curb air pollution during the winter months, as well as state efforts to slash excess industrial capacity. But the producer price index has been easing since the end of last year as those controls are tempered. Official data on Thursday showed the PPI hit 3.4 per cent in April, up from 3.1 per cent in March, in line with a forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. — AFP