BEIJING, Aug 9 — China’s factory gate prices in July rose at a faster-than-expected clip, adding to pressure on businesses struggling with high raw material costs, official data showed today, while consumer inflation eased slightly.

The producer price index (PPI) rose 9.0 per cent from a year earlier last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected the PPI to rise 8.8 per cent, unchanged from June.

The consumer price index (CPI) meanwhile grew by 1.0 per cent on an annual basis, the statistics bureau said. The index was expected to inch up by 0.8 per cent, according to a median forecast in a Reuters poll, after a 1.1 per cent gain in June. — Reuters