Statistics Explained

Inflation in the euro area


Data from December 2021. Extracted on 20 January 2022.

Next planned article update: 2 February 2022.

Highlights

Euro area annual inflation was 5.0 % in December 2021, up from 4.9 % in November 2021.

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 December 2021. The four components are: 1) food, alcohol and tobacco, 2) energy, 3) non-energy industrial goods, and 4) services.
Euro area annual inflation and its main components, December 2011 - December 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_manr)

The figures presented in this article are the actual Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).

Full article

Euro area annual inflation rate and its main components

Euro area annual inflation was 5.0 % in December 2021, up from 4.9 % in November 2021.

Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy had the highest annual rate in December (25.9 %, compared with 27.5 % in November), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (3.2 %, compared with 2.2 % in November), non-energy industrial goods (2.9 %, compared with 2.4 % in November) and services (2.4 %, compared with 2.7 % in November).

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, which are: the item group's weight in 2021 in per mil, as well as the euro area annual inflation in the month December 2020 and the six months from July 2021 to December 2021
Table 1: Euro area annual inflation and its main components, 2021, December 2020 and July - December 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_manr)


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 December 2021. The four components are: 1) food, alcohol and tobacco, 2) energy, 3) non-energy industrial goods, and 4) services.
Figure 1: Euro area annual inflation and its main components, December 2011 - December 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_manr)


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 December 2021. The four components are: 1) food, alcohol and tobacco, 2) energy, 3) non-energy industrial goods, and 4) services.
Figure 2: Euro area annual inflation and its main components, December 2019 - December 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_manr)

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 2021, 100 % for the headline HICP, services is the largest component, accounting for around 41.8 % of household final monetary consumption expenditure in the euro area. It is followed by non-energy industrial goods with around 26.9 %.

Food, alcohol & tobacco and energy account for 21.8 % and 9.5 %, 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 2021 are presented in Figure 3. Table 2 shows their weights for 2021.

Doughnut chart showing the weights of the four main components of the euro area HICP in 2021.
Figure 3: Weights of the main components of the euro area HICP - 2021
(‰)
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_inw)


Table on the weights of all-items, of the four main components and of 15 of their subcomponents of the euro area HICP in 2021.
Table 2: Weights of the components of the euro area HICP - 2021
(‰)
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_inw)

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