Pork pies removed from inflation calculation
Pork pies have been removed from the basket of goods and services used to calculate inflation, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced.
Although pork pies are being removed as an individual item, they will still be covered by the wider term of a “meat-based snack”, which includes pork pies as well as, for example, sausage rolls, mini Cornish pasties and Scotch eggs.
Pork pies have been removed from the basket of goods and services used to calculate inflation.
According to ONS, this is to ensure that it can collect prices for this kind of snack in shops where pork pies themselves are not available.
In the meantime, new food items are added to the 2018 list include raspberries, quiche and prepared mashed potato.
The basket of goods helps measure the changing cost of products and services over time, updated annually to reflect consumer behaviour and show the changing tastes and habits of UK shoppers.
Currently, around 180,000 separate price quotations are used every month in compiling the indices, covering around 700 representative consumer goods and services. These prices are collected in around 140 locations across the UK, via the internet and over the phone.
Commenting on the new items, senior statistician, Philip Gooding, said: “Every year we add new items to the basket to ensure that it reflects modern spending habits. We also update the weight each item has to ensure the overall inflation numbers reflect shoppers’ experiences of inflation.
“However, while we add and remove a number of items each year, the overall change is actually quite small. This year we changed 36 items out of a total basket of 714.”
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