BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters) - China’s factory gate prices rose 6.8% from a year earlier in April, official data showed on Tuesday, reaching the highest level since October 2017 and beating analysts’ forecast. The increase in the producer price index compared with a 6.5% rise tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and a 4.4% rise in March. The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.9% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a separate statement, compared with a 1.0% rise tipped by the Reuters poll and a 0.4% rise in March. Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; writing by Se Young Lee; editing by Richard Pullin Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.