BEIJING - The slump in China's railway freight volume, an indicator of economic activity, lessened slightly in November, the country's top economic planner said Monday.

The railways carried about 270 million tons of cargo last month, down 15.6 percent year on year, compared with a fall of 16.3 percent in October, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Although the weak improvement showed that business is picking up, freight volume for the whole year looks set to decline to very low levels as the broader economy is under persistent downward pressure.

In the first 11 months of 2015, rail freight slipped 12.3 percent from a year earlier to 3.07 billion tons.

Soft rail freight figures indicated sluggish demand and anemic factory activity.

The producer price index (PPI), a measure of costs for goods at the factory gate, dropped 5.9 percent year on year in November, the 45th straight month of decline.

In another sign of weak demand, imports dropped 8.7 percent in November and fell 15.1 percent in the first 11 months of the year.