BEIJING, China (AFP) — Prices for goods at the factory gate in China beat expectations in January, officials said Tuesday, rising for a fifth straight month in a positive sign of strengthening demand as the world’s second-largest economy stabilizes. The producer price index (PPI) rose 6.9 percent year-on-year in the month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, outstripping an economist estimate of a 6.5 percent increase in a Bloomberg News survey. The consumer price […]