WIREDGOV

The Office for National Statistics announces the 2024 “Basket of goods and services”.

We recently (11 March 2024) revealed the annual changes to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) inflation "Basket of goods and services". The virtual basket contains over 700 carefully selected items representative of the goods and services that UK consumers typically spend their money on. 

Some items are removed from the basket, some are brought in, while others remain unchanged.This annual updating reflects the changing tastes and habits of consumers and maintains the accuracy and relevance of our inflation estimates.

New items are introduced to represent areas where consumer spending is significant or growing while items are removed where expenditure is low or decreasing.

Some of the changes also help to rebalance the basket, adding items where we need to improve coverage or take items out where a type of product may be over-represented.

However, these annual changes are only a small percentage of the items sampled. This year we have added16 items and removed 15 out of a total of 744 items. 

This year, vinyl records have returned to the basket after a resurgence in their popularity. This is not the first time that vinyl has been in the basket of goods; we last saw it there in 1992, only to then disappear as CDs and cassettes became more popular.

The air fryer has cemented its place on many a kitchen counter over the last few years with expenditure increasing by over 30% between 2021 and 2022. The energy saving aspect as well as the health benefits of cooking with less oil have made this item very appealing to consumers.

We are again seeing the influence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic fading from our shopping habits with hand sanitiser disappearing from the basket in 2024 as demand has dipped dramatically.

Click here for the full press release