Inflation being tracked in the UK with vinyl records


The Office of National Statistics is now including LPs in its shopping basket' to follow inflation:

https://archive.is/20240311094928/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vinyl-records-and-air-fryers-added-to-ons-inflation-basket-wjgq0np0q

dogberry

Does the UK include food, housing and energy in the statistics?

From the article linked:

The ONS tracks price changes of more than 700 goods and services to produce a monthly snapshot of inflation in the UK economy. It updates the items included in the basket every year to reflect the changing tastes and habits of consumers.

The last detailed "basket" I could find on their website included foods, housing and household services (which I assume includes energy), the last two categories being weighted to be 12% of expenditure.

1 Food & non-alcoholic beverages
2 Alcohol & tobacco
3 Clothing & footwear
4 Housing & household services
5 Furniture & household goods
6 Health
7 Transport
8 Communication
9 Recreation & culture
10 Education
11 Restaurants & hotels
12 Miscellaneous goods & services

I guess the LPs are thrown in with many other things in either the Miscellaneous or Recreational categories.

Conspiracy theories are in conflict. Causes of inflation are very complex but cost of vinyl certainly is not a metric. In the US, costs of food, housing, and energy most certainly are used to calculate the inflation rate.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-does-the-government-measure-inflation/#:~:text=The%20government%20measures%20inflation%20by,and%20services%20to%20previous%20prices.

Does the UK include food, housing and energy in the statistics? It's not included in the US inflation  index. So, of course, the actual inflation is higher because we spend the largest part of our income on these necessities. Its a way of keeping the #'s down so the people won't believe their lying eyes. 

That may (or may not) be so, but I thought it interesting that enough vinyl records are now being sold that they can be part of the process to track inflation.

Inflation is but a subterfuge. Governments overspend, devalue the currency and then concoct BS to distract us.