The personal CD player has been ejected from the "shopping basket" of goods and services used by Government statisticians to measure the rate of inflation.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has decided that personal CD players, introduced to the Retail Price Index (RPI) basket of goods in 1998, are no longer representative of consumer spending in 2006.

Instead, the ONS has replaced personal CD players with personal MP3 players, along with another new entry - the cost of music downloads. Other hi-tech gear to get the nod this time round are flat-panel TVs and digital camcorders. ®