Basket Of Goods

A fixed set of everyday consumer goods or services which are heavily relied upon by the public and can be predictably purchased year-over-year, such as clothes, food stuffs, gasoline, water, utility services, S&M equipment, etc.

The Basket of Goods is utilized to calculate the Consumer Price Index, and is periodically modified to reflect real-time consumer purchase habits. Basically the Bureau of labor Statistics will take the cost data of the items in the basket and compare it to the previous year, resulting in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).