A updated Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been introduced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) with the publication of the figures for January 2007 today.
The CSO have introduced 36 new items while 33 have been deleted from the basket of goods and services the CSO uses to measure how prices change and what people are spending their money on.
The CSO has updated the shopping basket Photo: Eric Luke
On the list, girls' trousers have replaced girls dresses, tinned tomatoes have replaced tinned sweetcorn and sweeping brush has replaced sweeping brush handle.
Technology has also had an effect in the index with the addition of plasma screens, MP3 players to basket.
A further 48 items have been modified in terms of definition and coverage. The previous basket of goods and services had 613 items; the new basket now comprises 616 items.
The CSO has also given new weights for certain items such as services. The CSO has calculated that people spend more on services than they do on goods, with services now representing 52.9 per cent of the CPI basket as compared to 47.1 per cent for goods.
The most notable changes in comparison with the previous weights are increases in the weights for housing, water electricity, gas and other fuels (+4.18 per cent) and communications (+1.52 per cent) and decreases in the weights for food and non-alcoholic beverages (-2.35 per cent), restaurants and hotels (-2.34 per cent) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (-1.45 per cent).
The pricing locations around the country have also been reviewed.
Previously the CSO collected prices in 86 towns and cities throughout Ireland. Excluding Dublin, prices will now be collected in 83 towns and cities across the country. Changes in pricing locations have been based on changes in population as reflected by the 2006 Census of Population.