The consumer price index -- a key measure of inflation -- dropped 0.1 percent year on year, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The reading was unchanged from April but slightly better than the 0.2 percent fall forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

China has struggled to lift sluggish domestic consumption since the end of the pandemic, threatening official growth targets and complicating Beijing's ability to shield its economy from global trade turmoil sparked by US President Donald Trump's tariff blitz.

Deepening a slump that has now lasted more than two years, factory gate prices also dropped in May, the NBS said Monday.

The producer price index declined 3.3 percent, accelerating from a 2.7 percent drop in April, and faster than the 3.2 percent estimated in the Bloomberg survey.