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[cja]

There I was casually perusing bloomberg when...

July 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. inflation last month grew at its fastest pace since March 2003 as the prices of televisions, computer games and foreign holidays rose, the government said.

Bloomberg

WTF? Surely a hyperbolic hack having fun...

Main contributions to the change in the 12-month rate

CPI

The largest upward effect on the CPI annual rate came from recreation
and culture. There was a large upward contribution from games, toys
and hobbies, with the price of toys falling by less than last year, and the
price of computer games rising this year but falling a year ago. Another
large upward contribution came from advance booked foreign holidays,
where the cost of June holidays increased this year to a range of
destinations, but fell a year ago. The price collection period for holidays
coincided with the Spring Bank Holiday this year, but fell in the
following week in 2003. There was also an upward contribution from
audio-visual equipment and related products, particularly due to price
changes for pre-recorded DVDs, televisions and personal computers. A
partially offsetting small downward contribution came from cultural
services, where the cost of theatre admissions rose by less than a year
ago.

Page 2 of http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/cpi0704.pdf

While Page 38 of http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/cpibrief0704.pdf tells us the rise for toys, photographic and sports was 0.4% this year versus a 1.7% decline last.

What were the big sellers of June... bug fest Driv3r and rehash of mediocrity Euro 2004. Why couldn't it have been Disgaea?

The inflation news is, of course, covered by every media outlet here from the The Times to BBC and Financial Times even though they're just rehash jobs of The Office for National Statistics press release.

Every family in the land is going to blame the Atari PlayStation, Microsoft PlayCube and Lara Croft for future mortgage rate increases. Wonder if The Sun and Mirror will make an issue out of this :\

 

[cvxfreak]

They should have absorbed the Euro.

 

[Mr Mike]

I blame Driv3r and it's stupid £44.99 RRP.