People shop at a supermarket in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, April 11, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0.2 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The figure was higher than the 0.1-percent increase in April.

On a monthly basis, the prices were slightly down by 0.2 percent, expanding from the 0.1-percent decline in the previous month.

The core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, was up by 0.6 percent from a year earlier.

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The NBS data showed that the producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 4.6 percent year-on-year in May

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the year-on-year price increase mainly to a high base in the corresponding period of 2022.

"In May, the CPI was generally stable," Dong said.

PPI down 4.6%

The NBS data also showed that the producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 4.6 percent year-on-year in May.

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The decrease expanded by 1 percentage point from that in April. On a monthly basis, China's PPI went down 0.9 percent, according to the bureau.

Dong attributed the decline to an overall downward trend in international commodity prices, weak demand in domestic and foreign industrial product markets, and the high comparison base during the same period last year.