Smartphone repairs, massages enter inflation basket

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 1 - ISTAT said Wednesday that smartphone repairs and beauty massages were among the products and services that have joined the basket of items it uses to calculate Italy's inflation rate.
    Medical examinations for sports, smart speakers, seedless grapes, freshly caught tuna, farmed fresh turbot and women's leggings also entered the basket, the national statistics agency said.
    Each year ISTAT reviews the list of items included in the consumer price index basket and the weight of each item in compiling the inflation rate on the basis of changes to household spending patterns.
    ISTAT said no products have left the basket this year since all those already present do not show signs of obsolescence.
    The 2023 basket for the Italian consumer price indices for the whole nation (NIC) and for blue-and-white-collar households (FOI) is made up of 1,885 elementary products, up from 1,772 in 2022, the agency said.
    ISTAT said that over 33 million price quotations are used each month to estimate Italian inflation. (ANSA).