China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 10.3 percent year on year in December, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.
The figure shrunk from the 12.9 percent year-on-year increase registered in November.
China's PPI rose 8.1 percent year on year in 2021, NBS data showed.
The slower expansion of PPI last month was due to the implementation of policies to ensure supply and stabilize prices of energy and raw materials including crude and coal, said senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.
Wednesday's data also showed that China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.5 percent year on year in December.