BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 5.4 percent in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.

It quickened from 4.3 percent in January this year, and 1.7 percent in December 2009, when the figure posted the first monthly rise since December 2008.