BEIJING – China's price levels continued their moderate recovery in August, reflecting sustained improvement in domestic demand under supportive policy measures.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent month-on-month in August, reversing three consecutive months of decline, while the year-on-year gain accelerated from 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent.

The bureau's statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the uptick to several factors: rising energy prices, seasonal increases in food prices, continued gains in travel services during the summer holiday period, and higher prices for smartphones and computers driven by the surging demand for computing power.

Core CPI, which strips out food and energy prices, edged up to 1 percent year-on-year from 0.9 percent the previous month.

Producer price index 

Factory-gate prices also sent encouraging signals. The producer price index (PPI) rose 0.4 percent month-on-month in August, swinging from a 0.7 percent decline the previous month, while the year-on-year gain widened to 3.8 percent, with the growth rate widening by 0.3 percentage point from July.

From January to August, the PPI increased by an average of 2 percent year-on-year.

The bureau cited the pass-through effect of rising global commodity prices and stronger demand in some sectors driven by domestic industrial upgrading.

Explaining the month-on-month movement, Dong said imported price pressures, particularly higher international crude oil and nonferrous metal prices, pushed up prices in some domestic industries, while industrial transformation and upgrading boosted demand and prices in some emerging sectors.

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A breakdown of data showed prices in oil extraction surged 10.4 percent month on month, while those for refined petroleum products rose 4.1 percent. Together with gains in organic chemical materials and nonferrous metal smelting and processing, the four industry groups contributed about 0.31 percentage point to the monthly PPI increase.

Price gains were also seen in some technology-intensive industries, with electronic circuit manufacturing up 3.5 percent and virtual reality equipment manufacturing rising 1.9 percent, reflecting stronger demand amid the development of new growth drivers, Dong said.

Seasonal factors also played a role, with stronger summer demand for electricity and coal lifting prices in related sectors, while high temperatures and rainfall weighed on construction activity and prices in related industries, Dong added.

Among major industries, strong price gains in coal mining, nonferrous metals and several other sectors contributed about 4.24 percentage points to the overall PPI increase, while six industries with the largest downward impact shaved about 0.74 percentage point off the index.