BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters) - China's producer prices rose at the slowest pace in a year in April, despite the surge in global commodity prices, leaving room for more stimulus to shore up the flagging economy, which faces pressure from heavy COVID-19 curbs.

The producer price index (PPI) rose 8.0% year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on Wednesday, following an 8.3% rise in March and faster than the 7.7% growth tipped by a Reuters poll.

The consumer price index (CPI) gained 2.1% from a year earlier, the fastest pace in five months, speeding up from March's 1.5% growth and beating expectations for a 1.8% rise.

China's economy slowed sharply at the beginning of the second quarter, as authorities in dozens of cities imposed full or partial lockdowns to stamp out COVID outbreaks, with Shanghai currently in its sixth week of lockdown. (Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sam Holmes)