1st LD-Writethru: China's PPI up 3.7 pct in February

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 3.7 percent year on year in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The pace was down from a rise of 4.3 percent recorded in January, but the index has increased for 18 consecutive months, according to the bureau.

Factory prices of production materials rose 4.8 percent in February, contributing 3.6 percentage points to the PPI increase, while factory prices for consumer goods gained 0.3 percent, pushing up the PPI by 0.08 percentage point.

In the first two months, the PPI rose 4 percent year on year. On a monthly basis, the index was down 0.1 percent from January.

The consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.9 percent year on year in February and 2.2 percent in the first two months, the bureau said. Enditem