Champagne pops back into Irish CPI basket

Champagne is making a comeback in the Republic of Ireland, a decade after the bubble burst in spectacular style for its Celtic Tiger economy.

The French fizz has been included as one of the items in the basket of goods used to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation.

Contents are updated every five years to keep pace with shopping trends.

After falling out of the basket in 2012, champagne was popped back in for 2017 by the Central Statistics Office.

The basket contains a wide-ranging selection of goods or services that are seen as a representative sample of current consumer spending habits.

The inclusion of new product in the CPI basket, or the reintroduction of an item, means it "has become popular enough to warrant inclusion in a sample of representative items", according to the CSO.

Other goods making the 2017 list were avocados, sweet potatoes, larger TVs and even stockbrokers' fees.

Following a trend seen in the UK in 2015, craft beer and e-cigarette refills have also been added to the Irish CPI basket.

CSO price checkers have calculated that prices of the goods rose by 0.3% over the year from January 2016 to January 2017.

Items that were struck off the latest shopping list include clock radios, camcorders and disposable cameras.

But is return of the luxurious tipple that has caught most attention, with CPI Champagne being hailed by the Irish broadcaster Newstalk as "a clear sign that recessionary times are behind us".

The Republic of Ireland experienced years of austerity after its economy crashed during the global downturn in 2007/2008

After being forced to seek an international bailout in 2010, the state has turned around its economy.

And after years of belt-tightening and "make do and mend", one of the services deleted from the CPI basket due to declining popularity was "alteration to trousers".