Air fryers, gin and disposable vapes are added to Ireland's basket of goods while landline phones and nightclubs are dropped

Landline telephone services, admission costs to nightclubs and digital cameras have all been cut from the basket to reflect changing consumer spending habits 

Some other items that have been added to the basket this time around include milk and meat substitutes, smartwatches, spring onions, non-alcoholic beers and wireless headphones. Act. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Air fryers, disposable vapes, rib-eye steaks and gin are just some of the items that have been added to the updated basket of goods and services used to determine Ireland's inflation rate, with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) updating its item collection for the first time in eight years to reflect changing consumer spending habits.

Some other items that have been added to the basket this time around include milk and meat substitutes, smartwatches, spring onions, non-alcoholic beers and wireless headphones, with other items having their long-standing time in the basket come to an end.

Amongst these goods and services include landline telephone services, admission costs to nightclubs, swiss rolls, stockbroker fees and digital cameras, which have all been removed from the basket, joining the growing group of axed items which includes DVD players, deep fat fryers, calculators and loose tea leaves.

Using the new and updated basket of goods, the CSO recorded Irish annual inflation to be 4.1% in January, down from an annual increase of 4.6% in the 12 months to December 2023. 

This is only the third time since September 2021 that the annual growth in the CPI has been below 5% while also being the third consecutive month where the inflation rate was lower than 5%.

However, core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as unprocessed foods and energy, rose by 5.3% in the same period. 

The most significant price growth in the past 12 months was seen in recreation and culture, up 9.3%, followed by restaurants and hotels which rose by 7.2%, with statistician, Anthony Dawson noting that recreation price rises reflect a surge in package holiday prices, up by almost 42%.

Clothing & Footwear was the only division to show a decrease when compared with January 2023, falling by 1.3%.

Overall, consumer prices fell by 1.3% in the month between December 2023 and January 2024, with alcoholic beverages and tobacco the only division to rise on a monthly basis, increasing by 2.4%. 

"The items in the national basket of goods and services have also been updated as have the weights applied to each item," Mr Dawson explained, adding that today’s release "uses the new baseline period of December 2023=100, as will all CPI releases until the next rebase."

The CSO's list of around 600 products in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is rebased every five years but was postponed due to the covid pandemic. The ‘weights’ or importance of different items in the basket is updated yearly. 

The CPI differs slightly from the EU’s measure of inflation, the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) which is not changing.