BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 0.7 percent in January year-on-year, the lowest since December 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The reading eased further from December's 1.7-percent growth, as most of the country's factories suspended production during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

On a month-on-month basis, China's January PPI fell 0.1 percent from December, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

Producer purchase prices grew 2 percent year-on-year in January and were down 0.3 percent from a month ago, said the NBS.