The UK's inflation basket has been updated to include pet grooming services, non-alcoholic beer, and dashboard cameras, reflecting changing consumer spending patterns. The Office for National Statistics added 27 new items while removing 19 others from the basket of over 700 products used to track price growth. This annual update provides insights into evolving consumer preferences and market trends.

Supermarket scanner data will now cover more than half of the grocery market, replacing thousands of manually collected price points with millions of automated data points from supermarket tills. The shift to scanner data represents a significant improvement in how UK economic statistics are collected and measured. The ONS will track product sales volumes to better understand how price changes affect consumer behavior.

The addition of hummus and removal of single sheets of wrapping paper in favor of rolls demonstrate how health trends and packaging preferences influence the basket's composition. These changes take effect in February's inflation figures, published on March 25. The update also includes motor homes and removes hotel price collection one day in advance to reduce volatility.