Inflation in the euro area

Data from September 2021. Extracted on 20 October 2021.

Next planned article update: 29 October 2021.

Highlights

Euro area annual inflation was 3.4 % in September 2021, up from 3.0 % in August 2021.

Euro area annual inflation and its main components (%), September 2011 - September 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 3.4 % in September 2021, up from 3.0 % in August 2021.

Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy had the highest annual rate in September (17.6 %, compared with 15.4 % in August), followed by non-energy industrial goods (2.1 %, compared with 2.6 % in August), food, alcohol & tobacco (2.0 %, stable compared with August), and services (1.7 %, compared with 1.1 % in August).

Table 1: Euro area annual inflation and its main components (%), 2021, September 2020 and April - September 2021
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_manr)

Figure 1: Euro area annual inflation and its main components (%), September 2011 - September 2021
Source: Eurostat (prc_hicp_manr)

Figure 2: Euro area annual inflation and its main components (%), September 2019 - September 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 relative weights for 2021.