Govt. basket lumps in Inflation.co.uk

The Government is to include e-commerce sales in the shopping basket of goods and services that is used to work out the Retail Price Index (RPI). The sale of books and toys online will account for 0.05 per cent of the RPI as part of trial conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). A spokesman for the ONS said it was too early to say when e-commerce sales would be introduced in the full index, or how it might affect the RPI. Elsewhere, PC printers and some exam-related educatinal CD ROM's were included in the index at the expense of luncheon meat, custard powder and women's leggings. The RPI is supposed to mirror consumer spending and is used to measure inflation. ®