MP3 players are the new Mars bars

The "shopping basket" of goods, used as a common standard for measuring inflation in the UK, has been updated yet again to more closely reflect consumer buying trends.

So out go the slippers, chocolate biscuits and CD players and in come MP3 players and music downloads.

The basket, compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), is intended to be a measure of the fluctuations in the prices paid for items by the average man and woman in the street. In the past, items such as Mars bars and a litre of gin have been staples of the list but in recent years items such as laptops and consumer electronics have been added.

However, critics have suggested that the addition of items which tend to fall in value, irrespective of inflation, such as gadgets, could skew the overall result of such a metric.

A spokesman for the ONS told silicon.com that negative inflation is still relevant as an indication of general cost of living not necessarily tied to inflation.

He said: "People can generally pay less now for an iPod than they did six months ago. Such items belong in the basket just as much as those things which do not experience such price patterns," he added, speaking of items such as the Mars bar and bottle of gin which typically increase rather than decrease in price over time.

The spokesman added: "The basket is intended to be as close a reflection as possible of people's spending habits."

Each month the ONS collects around 120,000 prices for its list of around 650 goods and services.