BEIJING, Aug. 9 -- China's factory prices slowed their advance in July, as a sharp reversal in oil costs stripped away the commodity premium that the US-Israel war on Iran had built into industrial inflation over the previous two months, pushing the producer index back below analyst expectations.

The National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday that the producer price index rose 3.5 percent year on year in July, falling from 4.1 percent in June and missing the 3.98 percent median forecast from economists polled by financial data provider Wind. Month on month, the index declined 0.7 percent, more than double the 0.3 percent monthly dip recorded in June. For the year through July, China Daily reported, the index averaged 1.8 percent above yea...