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Getty ImagesBEIJING– Chinas producer cost index increased 9% in May from a year ago as product prices rose, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.That marked the fastest increase in production expenses given that September 2008, when the index rose 9.13%, according to Wind Information.While the gains exceeded expectations of an 8.5% boost, according to a Reuters survey, the rise does come off a low base. The study found the percentage of business reporting gross revenue margin below 15% has increased to about 70%.”Read more about China from CNBC ProIn the last a number of weeks, the main Chinese federal government has revealed extra assistance for small services, especially those affected by rising raw product prices.The effect on small and mid-sized organizations is “rather large,” Wang Jiangping, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told reporters last week in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.He kept in mind that their operating profit margin of 6% in the very first four months of the year was 2 portion points lower than that of big enterprises– a gap that is increasing.Wednesdays data release showed that prices nearly doubled, increasing 99.1%, for Chinas petroleum and natural gas extraction industry, and climbed 34.3% for oil, coal and other fuel-processers. The stats bureau said Wednesday that the consumer price index rose 1.3% year on year in May, missing out on expectations for a 1.6% boost.