For the New England grocery store chain, see DeMoulas' Market Basket

The term market basket refers to the idea of a fixed list of items, the prices of which are tracked. It is often used to track the progress of inflation in an economy. The list used for such an analysis would contain a number of the most commonly bought food and household items. The variations in the prices of the items on the list from month to month give an indication of the overall development of price trends.