SPIRITS CPI FLAT

Christine Farkas of Merrill Lynch reports that wine consumer price index (CPI) of 2% in January was up slightly from December’s growth, driven by favorable product mix as consumers continue to trade up. Wine CPI was up 2.3% for 2006.

By contrast, spirits CPI growth was flat in January, “showing the slowest year on year monthly gain since at least January 1993.” Spirits CPI in Jan of last year grew by 1.8% and was up 1.3% for the year.