Alcohol-free beer and hummus: Trendy food transforms inflation basket
Healthy food and personal security products have dominated the list of additions to the Office for National Statistics’ basket of goods, which is used to calculate CPI inflation each month.
Alcohol-free beer, hummus and baby food are among the new entries in the inflation basket of goods, it has been revealed.
The revisions to the inflation basket will give Bank of England policymakers further food for thought before they set interest rates every eight weeks.
Low-alcohol beer is also set to be included in the range of non-alcoholic beer products. Croissants were also added to a segment for pastries and other breakfast bakery products.
Data officials at the statistics body justified the addition on the basis there was a larger number of drinkers interested in cutting alcohol consumption.
“Sales have increased over recent years, as has the product range and shelf-space devoted to the product,” officials said.
Pet grooming
Data scientists also streamlined some of the data around sandwiches. Takeaway items are set to be split from ready-made meals in supermarkets.
Security and home products are also key to additions in the new inflation basket of goods, which has around 750 items in it.
The prices of dashcams are set to be tracked as the value of the market had reached “around £150m in 2023” due to drivers’ keenness to lower insurance costs and improve parking security.
Pet grooming has also been added to the inflation basket of goods, which analysts have said reflects broad changes in home culture since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
“Lots of households added pets to their number during lockdowns and the popularity of ‘Doodles’, or poodle-cross dogs with curly coats, has seen increased demand for pet grooming, which is the number one expense for animal owners after health checks,” Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, suggested.
“Consumer behaviour is constantly evolving, and this annual shuffle gives us an insight into our changing lived experience.”
Inflation basket gets into semantics
Other changes include the merging of white wines from Italy and France with those coming from the rest of the world as well as the replacement of “sheets of wrapping paper” by “rolls of wrapping paper”.
“Collectors have reported difficulties in pricing individual sheets, so moving to rolls better reflects availability in the gift-wrap sector,” ONS data chiefs said.
The highest weighting in the inflation basket of goods comes in housing products and household services while the lowest weighting is in communication and education.