According to Bloomberg, the producer-price index in China fell 2.6 percent in June, compared with a 2.8 percent drop a month earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday. The decline was the smallest since late 2014. The consumer-price index rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier, compared with a median economist estimate of 1.8 percent and a 2 percent gain in May.

Factory-gate deflation that has persisted since early 2012, and was at its worst late last year, has been easing amid a rebound in property sales and higher commodities prices. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg project producer prices will turn positive in 2018. That eases pressure on the People's Bank of China to provide more stimulus to fight deflation, according to Raymond Yeung, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.