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Pork pies out as GoPros added to inflation shopping basket

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Written by: Paloma Kubiak
13/03/2018
A host of new food items have been added to the official list of products used to measure inflation, while pork pies and edam cheese are out.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses a basket of goods and services to calculate CPIH (including owner occupiers’ housing costs) and this list is reviewed annually to reflect consumer tastes and trends.

This year, it has removed pork pies as an individual item; instead it will come under the ‘meat-based snack’ category. Edam cheese has also been removed.

Exercise leggings and action cameras, such as GoPros have been added to the basket, as well as raspberries, quiche and mashed potato, which has re-appeared after some 30 years out of the list.

Adult-supervised soft play sessions have also made it into the basket for the first time following their popularity across the UK. And children’s sit and ride toys have also replaced children’s trikes.

Given the rise of smartphones, the ONS has removed digital camcorders while digital media players such as Chromecast and Apple TV have replaced digital TV recorders and receivers such as Freeview boxes. Action cameras, such as GoPros, have been added to reflect their popularity with consumers.

Nightclubs across the UK have been closing over recent years and the ‘bottle of lager in a nightclub’ now follows nightclub admissions, which dropped out of the basket in 2016.

Other items added to the 2018 basket include body moisturising lotion, high chairs and girls’ leggings. Items removed include peaches and nectarines, leg waxing and ATM charges.

Senior statistician, Philip Gooding, said: “Every year we add new items to the basket to ensure that it reflects modern spending habits. We also update the weight each item has to ensure the overall inflation numbers reflect shoppers’ experiences of inflation.

“However, while we add and remove a number of items each year, the overall change is actually quite small. This year we changed 36 items out of a total basket of 714.”

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