The ONS collects the costs of 760 products and services across different retailers to come up with the monthly inflation figures. The ONS said 0% beer and houmous had been added due to their growing popularity and consumer spending. The government has set a 2% target for the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation. The most recent published rate was 3% in January. Official forecasters had expected that to drop to 2% by the end of the year, but that is now considered far less likely owing to the economic fallout from the war in Iran. A rate of closer to 3% is now predicted.