The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure the changes from month to month in the cost of a representative ‘basket’ of goods and services bought by consumers within the United Kingdom. This involves weighting together aggregated prices for different categories of goods and services so that each takes the appropriate share within household budgets. At the beginning of each year the weights used to compile both the CPI and RPI are updated using the latest available information on spending patterns. This article describes the sources for these weights, explains why weights are important and provides a brief explanation for the changes to these weights between 2003 and 2004.
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