BEIJING—China’s factory gate prices declined at their fastest pace in more than three years in September, reinforcing the case for Beijing to unveil further stimulus as manufacturing cools on weak demand and U.S. trade pressures.
The producer price index (PPI), considered a key barometer of corporate profitability, dropped 1.2 percent year-on-year in September, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Oct. 15. That marked the steepest decline since July 2016 but matched forecasts in a Reuters survey of analysts.
