BEIJING -- China's producer prices continued to fall in July but the decline has kept narrowing as economic activities recovered amid effective epidemic control in the country, official data showed Monday.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 2.4 percent year on year in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The reading narrowed from the 3-percent drop in June and 3.7-pct fall in May.

Month on month, overall producer prices gained 0.4 percent. On average, factory-gate prices were down 2 percent during the January-July period compared with the same period last year.