China's producer prices rose at the slowest pace in May since March 2021 as the government took steps to coordinate COVID-19 control with economic development and stabilize industrial as well as supply chains in key sectors, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, increased 6.4 percent year-on-year in May, following an 8 percent rise from the previous month, the NBS said.

The PPI grew by 0.1 percent in May, easing from a 0.6 percent increase from the previous month.

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.1 percent year-on-year in May, flat with the previous month, the NBS data showed.

Compared to a year ago, food prices increased 2.3 percent, against a 1.9 percent gain in April, resulting in a rise of 0.42 percentage points in headline CPI.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell by 0.2 percent, following a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month.

The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed as a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, came in at 0.9 percent year-on-year in May, flat with the previous month.