Stats-crunchers toss ebooks into Blighty's 2013 inflation basket

The Office for National Statistics has added ebooks to the basket of goods and services used to calculate Britian's rate of inflation, while Freeview boxes have been tipped out. The ONS said that ebooks were needed in the shopping basket that represents the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Retail Prices Index (RPI) in the UK, …

[Colin Millar]

Wow - that's a bit of luck

You wait ages for a pair of rose-tinted inflation calculating spectacles and then two come along at once.

[JetSetJim]

Re: Wow - that's a bit of luck

Aye - who'd a thunk it, the new proposed metrics mean that "inflation" is lower than currently reported. Makes you feel better about not getting a pay rise for 6 years.

[It wasnt me]

Re: Wow - that's a bit of luck

Makes you effing livid doesn't it? And the new products that are added are all currently at the beginning of their price curve. Expensive now - new to market. Becoming more popular, new players in market. Prices getting driven down. What a fantastic way of calculating inflation. Bastards. Who the hell does this sort of manipulation help anyway?

[dotdavid]

Yarr

In alcohol, white rum is on the up, a statistic the ONS links to increasing numbers of young drinkers

It be pirates not whippersnapper landlubbers, ye scurvey dogs. We be sufferin' from the curse o' recession too, yer white rum bilge bein' cheaper than our fav'rite Ol' Spiced. Arrr!

[JimmyPage]

What would be more useful as a measure

would be the *differential* between eBooks and real books ....

[Andy The Hat]

RPIJ - so that'll be J for 'Just joking'.

CPIH - H for "Has little bearing in truth".

Amazing how these newly developed statistical functions always fudge ... I mean "accurately reflect the actual rate of inflation" downwards ... I remember the days when we only had one rate of inflation but I think we've been Euro-crated since then ...

[arrbee]

IIRC some government bods presented one of their proposed new measures to a meeting of the statistician's society in London and were rather taken aback at the level of criticism.