Financial Times FT.com

The global food crisis

UK brings fresh flavour to inflation gauge

By Delphine Strauss in London

Published: March 17 2008 19:28 | Last updated: March 17 2008 19:28

Fruit smoothies, breakfast muffins and fees for stabling horses are the latest additions to the shopping basket used to measure changes in living costs, in which food will this year account for a higher share of household spending.

The Office for National Statistics annually updates the items it uses to calculate inflation on the consumer price and retail price indices, and the changes published on Monday give some telling insights into changing spending patterns.

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