Manufacturer's prices for crude oil "rocketed" by 20.7% in May over the same period last year which drove up industrial prices by 0.6 percentage points, said the NBS. The prices for oil products, such as gasoline, diesel and kerosene were up 19.8%, 24.1% and 20.5% respectively. The price of raw coal increased 5.3% on the same period last year.

China's industrial producer prices increased by 2.4% overall in May, over the same period of 2005, the NBS said. Factory prices for mined products surged by 12.9%, while those of raw materials rose 6%. Processed products rose by 0.8%.

Despite higher costs for mining products and energy, ferrous metal prices actually declined by 7.4% while prices for refined, rolled and flattened non-ferrous increased 25.3%.

Consumer prices were less dramatically changed: producer prices for consumer products slid by 0.4% year on year. Prices for food dropped by 0.8% and durable consumer products by 2.1%.