BEIJING - China's producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.2 percent year on year in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Sunday.

This marks the ninth straight month of decline after the PPI dropped in March for the first time since December 2009.

The decline was smaller than the 2.8-percent decrease in October, indicating that the economy has been stabilizing, analysts said.

The PPI inched down 0.1 percent in November on a month-on-month basis, according to the NBS.

The November PPI figure was in line with the country's latest purchasing managers index (PMI), which rose to 50.6 percent in November from 50.2 percent in October, suggesting that manufacturing activity has improved.

Meanwhile, the NBS said China's consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, grew 2 percent in November year on year.