Inflation
How euro area prices are moving against the ECB's 2% target, and where individual member states sit within the bloc.
About these numbers. All values are year-over-year percent change in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). The ECB's mandate is to keep medium-term inflation at 2% — above is too hot, below 0% is deflation. "Core" strips out volatile food + energy.
Latest snapshot
Euro area headline (%)
Euro area core (%)
Gap vs 2% target (pp)
Latest data: Dec 2025
- Euro area headline at 1.9%, core at 2.3%
- Gap vs ECB 2% target: -0.1 pp
- Hottest member state: Spain at 3%
- Coolest member state: France at 0.7%
Country comparison — headline over time
Showing major euro-area economies + the bloc aggregate. All other tracked countries are still in the Full monthly history table at the bottom of the page.
Reading this chart. Each line is one country (or the euro area aggregate). Look for the 2022 spike — Germany and France peaked nearer 10%, while Italy and Spain followed similar paths. The convergence back toward 2% from 2024 onward shows how the ECB's tightening cycle worked through the bloc.
Gap vs ECB 2% target — latest month
Reading this chart. Each bar is one country's gap from the ECB's 2% target in Dec 2025. Bars right of zero are running hot; left of zero are below target. Of 6 entities tracked, 2 are above target and 3 are below.
Euro area — what's driving the headline number
Reading this chart. Headline is what households experience. Core strips out the two most volatile pieces (food + energy) — it's what the ECB watches because it's stickier. Energy spiked hardest in 2022 (Russia/Ukraine), pulling headline far above core. Services is the slowest to turn — it lags goods inflation by 6–12 months, so it's often the last component to come back to target.
This is the inflation that drove the ECB's tightening cycle — every Governing Council decision is on the Monetary policy page.
Full monthly history
Related
- ← Back to overview
- Monetary policy — how the ECB responded to these prints
- Currency & external — the FX side of the inflation story
- Pipeline Health — data freshness and sources