Data from March 2026. Extracted on 16 April 2026

Next planned article update: 30 April 2026

Inflation in the euro area

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Data from March 2026. Extracted on 16 April 2026

Next planned article update: 30 April 2026

Highlights

Euro area annual inflation was 2.6% in March 2026, up compared to February 2026.

Line chart with five lines showing the development of euro area annual inflation and its four main components monthly during the last two years until March 2026. The four components are: food, alcohol and tobacco, energy, non-energy industrial goods, and services. For more details, please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Euro area annual inflation and its main components, March 2016-March 2026
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_minr)

The figures presented in this article are based on euro area Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) available on 16 April 2026. They refer to the evolving composition of the euro area. Thus, data for months up to December 2025 represent the euro area with 20 countries, while data for January 2026 onwards represent the euro area with 21 countries.

Euro area annual inflation rate and its main components

Euro area annual inflation was 2.6% in March 2026, up compared to 1.9% in February 2026. Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy had the highest annual rate in March 2026 (5.1%, compared with -3.1 in February), followed by services (3.2%, compared to 3.4 in February), food, alcohol & tobacco (2.4%, compared 2.5% in February), and non-energy industrial goods (0.5%, compared with 0.7% in February).

Table on the euro area annual inflation and its main components. The ten rows show the following items: 1) all-items, 2) all-items excluding energy, 3) all-items excluding energy and unprocessed food, 4) all-items excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, 5) food, alcohol and tobacco, 6) processed food, alcohol and tobacco, 7) unprocessed food, 8) energy, 9) non-energy industrial goods, and 10) services. Data is shown in eight columns: first, the item group's weight in 2026 in per mil, followed by the euro area annual inflation in the month of March 2025 and finally one column per month for the six months from October 2025 to March 2026. For more details, please use the links to the source datasets codes below the image.
Table 1: Euro area annual inflation and its main components: weights for 2026 and rates for March 2025 and October 2025-March 2026
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_iw) and (prc_hicp_minr)


Line chart with five lines showing the development of euro area annual inflation and its four main components monthly during the last ten years until March 2026. The four components are: 1) food, alcohol and tobacco, 2) energy, 3) non-energy industrial goods, and 4) services. For more details, please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Figure 1: Euro area annual inflation and its main components, March 2016-March 2026
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_minr)


Line chart with five lines showing the development of euro area annual inflation and its four main components monthly during the last two years until March 2026. The four components are: 1) food, alcohol and tobacco, 2) energy, 3) non-energy industrial goods, and 4) services. For more details, please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Figure 2: Euro area annual inflation and its main components, March 2024-March 2026
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_minr)


Main components of inflation

Each of the main components contributes in varying degrees to the headline inflation in the euro area. In terms of weights for 2026, 100% for the headline HICP, services is the largest component, accounting for around 46.7% of household final monetary consumption expenditure in the euro area. It is followed by non-energy industrial goods with around 25.3%.

Food, alcohol & tobacco and energy account for around 18.9% and 9.0%, respectively. Together, they comprise less than one third of euro area expenditure, but they can have significant impacts on the headline inflation as their prices tend to fluctuate significantly more than the other components.

The weights of the main components of the euro area for 2026 are presented in Figure 3.

Pie chart showing the weights of the four main components of the euro area HICP in 2026.
Figure 3: Weights of the main components of the euro area HICP - 2026
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_iw)

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