Beijing, Aug 9 - China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.9 percent in July from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.

The data marked the fifth straight month of year-on-year decline after China's PPI saw a drop in March for the first time since December 2009, NBS data showed.

On a month-on-month basis, the country's PPI in July moved down 0.8 percent, the NBS said in a statement on its website, reported Xinhua.

In July, producer purchase prices shed 3.4 percent year on year and 0.8 percent on a monthly basis, the NBS said.

In the first seven months of this year, the PPI went down one percent year on year, while producer purchase prices lost 0.8 percent.