The Office of National Statistics has released its annual review of the inflation calculation, showing what has been added and removed to the basket of goods used to calculate inflation. This year, out goes the cost of developing and printing colour film, as digital cameras steadily erode that business, and in comes Apple iPads (or rather, “tablet computers”), to reflect the growing size and importance of the market — tablet computers are predicted to outsell PCs by 2013.
The changes reflect a number of priorities. As well as those related to the death of old technologies and the birth of new ones, others are designed to make the job of actually collating the information easier. So “branded chocolate sweets” replace “candy coated chocolate” due to difficulty of collection, while “outdoor adventure boot” is swapped out for “walking/hiking boot”.
Some of the changes reflect different ways of buying the same things. We no longer purchase “cable TV subscriptions” in enough numbers, apparently, instead opting for “bundled communication services”; and “annual leisure centre membership” is taken out. since it is already reflected in, for example, “leisure centre exercise classes”.
There is a tough line to walk with some introductions. Adding technology early is always important, since the fall in prices represents a real increase in relative living standards; and yet, pre-empting market adoption runs the risk of artificially dampening the final figures. For instance, blu-ray players were added to the basket in 2010, when they looked like the future of home entertainment; with the growing popularity of streaming services, they now look like an evolutionary dead-end, and yet their continually dropping prices will have lowered inflation, albeit by a miniscule amount.
The ONS always has a tricky job to do in balancing these competing demands, and it is further hampered by the fact that spending habits differ greatly between the most and least well-off in society. Trying to come up with a single figure to represent the whole nation may be an impossible task, but they will carry on trying to do so for as long as we ask it of them.
Included:
Bag of sweets (not chocolate), replacing bag of boiled/jellied sweets, to allow representation of foam sweets which have taken an increasing share of the market.
Tablet computers, introduced to represent a significant and growing market. Also improves coverage in an under-represented area of the basket.
Chicken and chips, takeaway, introduced to improve coverage of catering which has been identified as an under-represented area of the basket.
Pineapple. Fruit prices vary greatly, so it is beneficial to collect across as broad a range as possible.
Removed:
Develop & print 135/24 colour film, this item has a low and decreasing weight due to the increasing popularity of digital cameras.
Step ladder, a relatively low weighted item in an over covered area of the basket.
Subscription to cable TV, replaced by bundled communication services reflecting a change in the way in which this service is purchased.
Get the full data (pdf).
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