The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Vinyl back in ONS basket as Guinness out
Apint of Guinness in a pub and bottles of hand sanitiser will no longer be taken into account when estimating how high inflation is.
The Office for National Statistics said it would remove those and other items, but is reintroducing vinyl to its list for the first time in 32 years.
Every month, the ONS measures inflation – that is to say, how prices are increasing, or decreasing – for British households.
To do that, the statisticians need to figure out what households normally buy. They have what they call a “basket” of more than 740 different goods and services that they think people buy.
But over time, what people buy changes and the ONS has to make changes to that list. For instance, in 1992, as CDs and cassettes increased in popularity, the ONS removed vinyl records.
Those tables have now turned. More than three decades later, vinyl has become trendy again and is added to the list again.
Another addition to the list is a result of energy bills soaring – the air fryer, with manufacturers saying they are a lower-energy way of cooking.
Some removals from the list are less about what people are buying less of, and more that the ONS does not think it needs to track the price of that item specifically.
That is the case for Guinness. This year, draught stout has been removed from the list, because the price of draught stout and draught bitter often move together. Therefore the ONS does not think it needs to track both of them.
Other additions to the list this year include glutenfree bread, rice cakes, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and women’s socks.
Other removals from the list are popcorn, loose cooked ham, hot rotisseriecooked whole chicken, sofa beds – as pull-out beds become more popular – and bakeware.