ONS updates UK inflation basket with healthier foods, pet grooming products

(Sharecast News) - The Office for National Statistics on Monday revealed the items that have been added to this year's basket of goods and services used to calculate inflation, which include houmous, alcohol-free beer, pet grooming products and motorhomes. The ONS, which updates its consumer price inflation basket once a year, added 27 products and services in total and removed 19, resulting in a total of 760 items.

The items removed included sheets of wrapping paper (replaced by rolls of wrapping paper) and bottled premium lager bought in pubs and restaurants.

The agency said it updates its basket annually to "ensure the measures are representative of consumer spending patterns".

Commenting on the changes, the ONS's deputy director for prices, Stephen Burgess, said: "This year, healthier lifestyle choices influence consumer spending, reflected by goods such as hummus and non-alcoholic beer, while motor homes wheel into the basket, and increased demand for pet grooming is reflected."

It considers a number of factors when choosing representative items, including the ease of finding and pricing a product, its availability throughout the year, the amount spent on a particular item and price variability.

"Within each calendar year, the basket contents are fixed so that changes reflect only changes in prices, and not variations in the quality and quantity of items purchased," the ONS said.

"However, the basket contents and associated expenditure weights are updated annually. This is important to avoid potential biases that might otherwise develop, for example, because of the development of new goods and services. These procedures also help to ensure that the indices reflect longer-term trends in consumer spending."