The consumer price index -- a key measure of inflation -- edged up 0.1 percent on-year last month, according to data published by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The reading beat the 0.1 percent drop forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists and was an improvement on the 0.1 percent fall seen in May.

Officials have been battling to revive sluggish domestic spending since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the government's official growth target at risk.

That comes just as leaders face heightened turmoil sparked by US President Donald Trump's trade war.

In a signal of further deflationary pressure, Chinese factory gate prices fell in June at the fastest rate in nearly two years, the NBS said.

The producer price index declined 3.6 percent, accelerating from a 3.3 percent drop in May, and faster than the 3.2 percent decline estimated in the Bloomberg survey.