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Inflation

How fast everyday prices are rising. Prices compared with a year earlier.

  • Euro area
  • Portugal
-5%0%5%10%15%201820202022202420262% target (ECB and Fed)Euro area 3.8%
Show the numbers
Euro area
Sep 20263.8%
Aug 20263.2%
Jul 20262.9%
Jun 20262.8%
May 20263.2%
Apr 20263.0%
Mar 20262.6%
Feb 20261.9%
Jan 20261.7%
Dec 20252.0%
Nov 20252.1%
Oct 20252.1%
Portugal
Sep 20263.6%
Aug 20263.6%
Jul 20263.1%
Jun 20263.1%
May 20263.1%
Apr 20263.3%
Mar 20262.7%
Feb 20262.1%
Jan 20261.9%
Dec 20252.4%
Nov 20252.1%
Oct 20252.0%

What it is

Inflation is the yearly change in the price of a typical basket of things households buy: food, rent, energy, transport, clothes, services. An inflation rate of 3% means that basket costs 3% more than it did twelve months ago.

Why it matters

Inflation decides what your salary and savings are really worth. If prices rise 3% and your savings earn 1%, you can buy less with them than a year ago. It is also the number central banks steer by: the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve both aim for about 2% a year.

What moves it

Energy and food prices, wages, how much people and companies want to spend, the exchange rate (imports get dearer when the currency weakens), and interest rates, which work with a delay of a year or more.

Where the numbers come from

Eurostat (HICP). Updated automatically every day; official figures are sometimes revised after first release. All sources and their terms.