Euro Area Inflation Rate

Last Release

Dec 31, 2024

Actual

2.4

Units In

2.2

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

Feb 03, 2025

Time to Release

16 Days 15 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
10.6 Oct 2022	-0.6 Jul 2009	2.25 %	1991-2024	Eurostat

In Euro Area, the inflation rate is calculated using the weighted average of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Price (HICP) aggregates. The main components of the HICP are: food, alcohol and tobacco (19 percent of the total weight), energy (11 percent), non-energy industrial goods (29 percent) and services (41 percent). The HICP aggregates are computed as the weighted average of each country’s HICP components. The weight of a country is its share of household final monetary consumption expenditure in the total of the country’s group. The local HICPs are supplied to the Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes.

Latest Updates

The annual inflation rate in the Euro Area accelerated for a third straight month to 2.4% in December of 2024, the highest rate since July, compared to 2.2% in November and aligned with both market expectations and the preliminary estimate. The increase was largely due to base effects, as last year’s sharp declines in energy prices are no longer factored into annual rates. Costs rebounded for energy (0.1% vs -2% in November) for their first positive change since July, and inflation accelerated slightly for services (4% vs 3.9%). In turn, inflation slowed slightly for food, alcohol, and tobacco, as the fast price growth for processed food, alcohol, and tobacco (2.9% vs 2.8%) was offset by the slowdown for unprocessed food (1.6% vs 2.3%). Inflation increased in Germany (2.8% vs 2.4%) and France (1.8% vs 1.7%), but slowed in Italy (1.4% vs 1.5%). Meanwhile, core inflation steadied at 2.7%. The ECB expects inflation to move back to the 2% target by the year-end.