Market Indices

All price indices for EVE are calculated as Laspeyres indices, in which the base is updated monthly, based on total trade value of individual items in the previous month. Within each index there is a variety of items, ranging from eight items for the Mineral Price Index to over 4,000 for the Consumer Price Index.

Mineral Price Index (MPI)

The Mineral Price Index (MPI) shows the price changes in all eight minerals used to produce ships and other items in EVE. The weight of each mineral in the index changes each month is based on the relative trade values of the previous month.

The following minerals are used in MPI:

Primary Producer Price Index (PPPI)

The Primary Producer Price Index consists of manufacturing items used for the production of other manufacturing items at the secondary stage. Manufacturing items used for the production of final consumer goods are excluded. The index includes such item groups as drone compounds, moon materials, planetary commodities and items used in invention.

Secondary Producer Price Index (SPPI)

The Secondary Producer Price Index contains production materials and other production items that are used in the manufacturing of consumer goods, i.e. goods included in the Consumer Price Index.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

The Consumer Price Index measures the overall price changes of consumer products. This is not limited to consumables such as fuel, ammunition or PLEXes, but also includes assets such as ships, modules, implants and starbase structures. In summary, anything that is not primarily used to produce other goods is included in the index, which contains over 4000 individual items

Text Source

This text is quoted directly from the QEN Q4 2010. It has been reproduced here to provide a reference to the market metrics used in the blogs discussing Market Indices which are replacing the QENs.