Every five years the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revisits the list of goods and services that it uses to calculate inflation. Deciding what goes into and what comes out of the list of 612 items is as much an art as a science.
The science bit is the findings of the annual household budget survey, which looks at national spending patterns. The art is the input of the statisticians working at the CSO. As with sausage making it is better to focus on the outcome rather than the process.
The purpose of the exercise is to provide a more accurate measure of price increases across the economy which feeds into the monthly inflation figures. In turn, these have a bearing on national economic policy. But it also affords a window into society. What comes out of the list is often as illuminating as what goes in.
Amongst the items excised this year are e-readers, playschools, stockbroker fees and newspaper advertisements. Swiss rolls, midi-systems, digital cameras, MP4 players and photograph printing did not make the cut either.
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In went air-friers, smart watches, wireless speakers, headphones, vapes and delivery charges. Milk and meat substitutes, nonalcoholic beers, rib-eye steaks and spring onions were also added.
There is a danger of reading too much into the list. The removal of rail catering may just reflect the reduction by Irish Rail of its offering, as opposed to any change in commuter taste. The popularity of gin (a new entrant) and removal of night club fees may be about more than the advent of “prinks” – drinks at home before going out.
But what does emerge is a picture of a post-Covid society increasingly dependent on mobile technology for everything from share trading and news to recording family moments for posterity. It is one in which people are increasingly engaging in the world via online, with many worried about their health and diet. Whether this is a society particularly at ease with itself, or isolated in part by the impact of online technology on our lives is not for the CSO to consider. Its job is to count up the numbers.