China's producer price index plummeted 4.6 per cent year-on-year in April, its 38th straight month of decline, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

"Lower fuel prices and coal production costs mainly caused the acceleration in the month-on-month PPI drop," Yu Qiumei, a senior statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics told the Xinhua news agency.

China's consumer price index rose to 1.5 per cent year-on-year in April from 1.4 per cent in March, state media reported.

The main inflation rate was 0.8 per cent in January, its lowest level in more than five years. China has set an annual inflation target at about 3 per cent.

The value of China's foreign trade dropped more than 10 per cent in April, according to official figures, state media reported.

Foreign trade fell 10.9 per cent to 1.96 trillion yuan (320 billion dollars) compared to a year earlier, after discounting seasonal factors, Xinhua reported.