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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| E-cigarettes and craft beers in updated inflation basket | E-cigarettes and craft beers in updated inflation basket |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| E-cigarettes and specialist "craft" beers have been added to the basket of goods used to measure the UK's inflation rate. | E-cigarettes and specialist "craft" beers have been added to the basket of goods used to measure the UK's inflation rate. |
| The additions are part of the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) annual revision of the basket. | |
| The cost of music streaming services has been added as well, but sat-navs have been dropped. | |
| The basket of goods currently contains 703 items and services, of which 13 are new this year after eight were removed. | |
| The inflation rate currently stands at a record low of 0.3%, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index. | The inflation rate currently stands at a record low of 0.3%, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index. |
| Price survey | |
| The ONS said that e-cigarettes had been added because many smokers were using them. | |
| Sales of "craft" beers have been brought in because more money is being spent on them, along with a rise in the shelf space devoted to those beers in shops and supermarkets. | |
| Although only around 700 items have their prices tracked each month, many are measured in several places. So 110,000 prices are collected from 20,000 shops in the UK, with another 70,000 prices measured online. | |
| Revisions to this year's basket continue to reflect the fast-moving change in the use of technology. | |
| For 2015, the cost of music streaming services has been included, along with subscriptions to online console computer games. | |
| Headphones have been added too, as well as mobile phone accessories such as covers and chargers. | |
| However, sat navs are no longer included. "Partly because many drivers now navigate using smart phones, but also because some new cars now come with sat-navs built in," the ONS said. | |
| Recent years have seen additions to the basket of the cost of video streaming services, e-books, tablet computers and smartphones. | |
| Out have gone DVD recorders, Freeview set-top boxes, the cost of developing colour films and mobile phone downloads. |