BEIJING -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at wholesale level, dropped 4.8 percent year on year in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

The factory-gate price decline deepened from January's 4.3 percent and December's 3.3 percent, and posted its steepest fall since March 2012 when the index started a downward trend, according to the NBS.

However, on a monthly basis, PPI contracted 0.7 percent in February, narrowing from 1.1 percent fall in January.

Yu Qiumei, a senior NBS statistician, attributed the slower monthly decline to an improvement in the factory-gate prices in oil processing, chemical, and non-ferrous metal industries.