(Yicai Global) March 10 -- China's producer price index, which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, dropped 0.4 percent on the year in February due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

The decline was higher than chief economists surveyed by Yicai Global had predicted, with an average forecast of a 0.35 percent slide. The January PPI was unchanged on an annual basis.

On a monthly basis, the PPI fell 0.5 percent in February.