China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, rose 0.9 percent year-on-year in December 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

It was down from the 2.7 percent growth in November, according to the bureau.

On a monthly basis, the index edged down 1 percent in December, compared with 0.2 percent drop in November.

For the whole year, PPI rose 3.5 percent year-on-year, down from 6.3 percent growth in 2017, according to the NBS.

The prices of the means of production rose 1 percent year on year, compared with a rise of 3.3 percent in November.

Of all industrial sectors, producer prices in oil and natural gas exploration rose 4.5 percent from the previous year, with oil, coal and other fuel production increasing 5.7 percent. The pace of increases both decelerated from the preceding month.

Thursday's data also showed the country's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.9 percent year-on-year in December, down from 2.2 percent for November. The CPI rose 2.1 percent year-on-year in 2018, up from 1.6 percent for 2017.