What is excluded from the RPI?

Excluded items include:

• Gambling payments
• Cash gifts, donations
• Life assurance, contribution to pension funds
• Other insurance premiums including Friendly Societies
• Income tax National Insurance contributions
• Purchase or alteration of dwellings, mortgages
• Savings and investments Repayment of loans to clear other debts

Items are excluded for a variety of reasons including: it is hard to measure what is being purchased or identify a ‘unit’ which can be priced, it is a transfer payment, regarded as saving, investment or deferred expenditure, not consumption.