Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) has released the Monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for January 2015 which covers Mining, Electricity & Water and Manufacturing activities. This indicator is a measure of the average selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. The PPI for January, 2015 stands at 104.5, which shows a decrease of 16.7% over the PPI of December 2014; and 41.4% (year-on-year) when compared to the PPI of January 2014. Mining activity (which includes crude oil, natural gas and gas condensate) represents about 77% of the PPI. The sharp decline in prices of crude oil and natural gas during this year causing major impact on the decline in PPI of this month.   Compared with December 2014, the breakdown of the overall PPI for January, 2015 by main groups show a decline of 19.2% in “Mining” group (with a weight of 77%), the decreasing price shows up in Crude petroleum and natural gas by 19.1%.  “Manufacturing” group PPI (with a weight of 21%) shows a fall of 8.4%.The decreasing prices shows up in “Refined Petroleum products” by 11.8%,  “Basic metals” by 8.3%, “Basic Chemicals” by 3.4% and “Dairy products” by 0.2%. An increase is noticed in “Cement and other non-metallic products” by 3.5%, “Beverages” by 0.8% and “Grain mill and other products” by 0.1%.The PPI of “Electricity and water” group (with 2.0% weightage) shows an increase of 2.5%, resulting from the effect of price rise seen in Electricity by 4.3% and a decrease in Water by 0.4%.The overall PPI of January, 2015, compared to the PPI of January, 2014, has decreased (year-on year) by 41.4%. The “Mining” group PPI shows a drop by 44.3%. The “Manufacturing” group PPI shows a decline of 31.7% in January, 2015, when compared to the PPI of January, 2014. The major groups which explain this price fall are “Refined Petroleum Products” by 39.0%, “Basic chemicals” by 26.4%, "Basic Metals” by 14.3%,“Grain mill and other products” by 0.6%. However, prices rise are noticed in “Dairy products” by 6.9%, “Cement and other non-metallic products” by 5.6% and “Beverages” by 0.2%, The PPI for “Electricity & Water” shows a decrease of 1.7%, resulting from the effect of price fall seen in Electricity & Water by 1.8%,1.6% respectively. Further details on monthly/annual comparison of indices are available in Table (1) and figures (1) and (2) of the Press Release. For more info, Click here   and more detailed data and indexes are available on the Ministry’s website: www.mdps.gov.qa  and QALM: www.gix.gov.qa