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Craft beer now used to calculate CPI as sales increase

Published:  18 March, 2015

Craft beer enters the mainstream as it goes in the basket used to calculate inflation for the first time.

The Office of National Statistic, which updates the list of items used to work out consumer price inflation every year, said the introduction reflected the increased shelf-space of beers and ales from speciality and micro-breweries. Expenditure has also increased as speciality beers and ales become increasingly fashionable, the ONS said.

Prices on the 703 items in the 'basket' are collected from around 20,000 shops across the UK, as well as 70,000 online prices. More than 110,000 individual prices are included each month to calculate the CPI and 'weighted' to reflect the item's relative importance to CPI so that low cost items purchased by relatively few people will have less influence on the rate of inflation than higher value products bought in large numbers.

Thirteen new items make the list this year, including e-cigarettes, protein powders, sweet potatoes streaming music service Spotify and online console games subscriptions, along with the headphones to wear when playing them. However yoghurt drinks, frozen pizza, sat navs and white emulsion are out.

When the list was started in 1947 it comprised around 150 everyday goods that could be used to measure changes in the price of good and services.

Brewed by Eden Brewery of Penrith, Tebay Blonde is a light blonde ale, produced especially for a Cumbria motorway service station

The growth in craft beer is constantly accelerating, but it remains a small part of the beer market - it is expected to continue rising in the off-trade as the main brands increase in popularity and we have started to see the first multi-packs being listed in select outlets. So watch this space!

There has been considerable growth in premium and craft beers is recent years across the on and off-trade. Leading brewer Marston's said the premium bottled ale category is on track to being worth £1 billion by 2020 if current trends and interest in craft beers and premium ales continues. Its Premium Ale Report, published in June, saw world and specialist beers, increase 20.8% in sales in the last year, with bottled beers up 12.1% compared to ale, up 3.7% for ale and lager, up 3.4%.

Two weeks ago Oddbins opened its first standalone beer shop to attract a new raft of consumers into its shop, after sales of locally produced craft beers in Oddbins' stores rose 37% in the last 12 months.

Oddbins opened its first standalone beer shop earlier this month.

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