BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, reached a five-year high in December, official data showed Tuesday.

The reading rose 5.5 percent year on year, the highest reading since September 2011, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a month-to-month basis, it increased 1.6 percent.

PPI for the whole of 2016 dropped 1.4 percent year on year. The pace of decline was 3.8 percentage points narrower compared to that of 2015.

Factors including exchange rate volatility and rising prices of coal and steel as market demand grew steadily have led to continuous rises in PPI, analysts said.

The PPI figures came along with the release of the consumer price index, which rose 2 percent year on year in 2016, and gained 2.1 percent from a year ago in December.