While 36% of amounts transacted at retail outlets are settled using coins and banknotes, in 2017 the share of daily expenditures accounted for by cash was still almost half. [5] In addition, there is a growing volume of sales in the e-commerce market, which is expanding to encompass more and more areas.
The transitory component of the headline, food and fuel, is excluded. This is the standard practice though there are many statistical methods of exclusion. The short point is that core inflation is designed to capture the persistent component of inflation, which is amenable to policy.