Information on data
The harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) serves 2 main purposes:
- it is a measure of price stability for the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy strategy. The Governing Council of the ECB has defined price stability in terms of the HICP for the euro area;
- it is used as an indicator for assessing price convergence regarding a possible accession of a country to the monetary union (euro currency).
The HICP is also used for economic analyses and indexing contracts.
General
Definition of the HICP consumer basket
The HICP is published for all categories of the European classification of individual consumption according to purpose (ECOICOP) that are covered by the HICP.
The ECOICOP is a hierarchical classification that covers all products that need to be included in the HICP, as specified in Annex I of EU regulation 2016/792. The EU countries produce an index for all categories of ECOICOP for which the consumption is above 0.1% of the total household final monetary consumption expenditure in the country. For these categories, the national statistical institutes select their own ‘national basket’ of representative products of goods and services.
Product categories
The 12 main categories of products are:
01 Food and non alcoholic beverages
02 Alcoholic beverages and tobacco
03 Clothing and footwear
04 Housing, water, electricity, gas and other
05 Furnishings, household equipment and routine household
06 Health
07 Transport
08 Communications
09 Recreation and culture
10 Education
11 Restaurants and hotels
12 Miscellaneous goods and services
These 12 ECOICOP divisions of 2 digits are broken down into groups of 3 digits, classes of 4 digits and sub-classes of 5 digits.
Products not covered
The HICP does not cover any products that are not part of household final monetary consumer expenditure. Moreover, some expenditure categories are excluded due to operational difficulties related to price data collection or because no harmonised method of treatment exists yet. The following ECOICOP categories are not covered by the HICP:
02.3 Narcotics
04.2 Imputed rentals for housing
09.4.3 Games of chance
12.2 Prostitution
12.5.1 Life insurance
12.5.3.1 Public insurance connected with health
12.6.1 Financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Inflation data are published monthly.
For the euro area, data for a specific month are released twice. First as a ‘flash estimate’, around the end of the reference month. Estimated annual rates of change, monthly rates of change and indices, for the euro area and its individual countries, are published for the following aggregates:
- all-items HICP
- all-items excluding:
- energy
- energy and unprocessed food
- energy, food, alcohol and tobacco
- food, alcohol and tobacco
- processed food, alcohol and tobacco
- unprocessed food
- energy
- non-energy industrial goods
- services
Approximately in the middle of the month, the final data for the previous month with full breakdowns are released for the euro area and European Union, as well as EU Member States and other countries. The HICP at constant taxes (HICP-CT) also follows this calendar.
Check the full release calendar.
The HICP may be revised according to Article 7(5) of EU regulation 2016/792 on harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index. Articles 17, 18 and 19 of EU implementing regulation 2020/1148 lay down the rules for revisions.
Further information on revisions is given in the Harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) metadata.
Monthly HICP data are available as:
- index (2015=100, 2005=100 and 1996=100)
- annual rate of change
- monthly rate of change
- 12-month average rate of change
In addition, datasets with monthly data on contributions to the euro area annual inflation and first published data are available. The latter dataset may be relevant in case HICP data are used for indexation purposes, using first published data.
Annual HICP data are available as average index and rate of change.
For economic analysis purposes, over 30 special aggregates have been created. These are, for example, indices for goods, services, energy, or indices excluding some components such as energy and unprocessed food.
The set of special aggregates is compiled to meet policy needs. The definitions of these special aggregates can be found in the European classification of individual consumption according to purpose adapted to the needs of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (ECOICOP-HICP).
To find the HICP data as published on the day of release, please consult the following:
- from January 2016 onwards: Eurostat dataset HICP - first published data
- up to January 2016: Publication Data in Focus, containing a selection of data in pdf format
Specific topics
If you would calculate the HICP index yourself, you may not be able to reproduce the same index as published by Eurostat.
This may be due to rounding.
EU countries typically transmit indices with more decimals than the data published by Eurostat in its online database. The European aggregates and their sub-indices are computed by Eurostat from unrounded national figures, but they are published with only 1 or 2 decimals, depending on the country.
The HICP follows a harmonised methodology that produces high quality statistics to compare countries. The HICP is designed to assess price stability and is not intended to be a cost of living index.
The national consumer price index (CPIs) serve different national purposes. For that reason, some of the underlying concepts and methods of national CPIs may deviate from the requirements for the HICP.
HICP data are published by Eurostat, while national CPIs are published by national statistical institutes.
For each country joining the euro area, Eurostat makes an estimate of the euro changeover impact on inflation.
- Euro changeover and inflation in Croatia, October 2023
- Euro changeover and inflation in Lithuania, December 2015
- Euro changeover and inflation in Latvia, November 2014
- Euro changeover and inflation in Estonia, May 2011
- Euro changeover and inflation in Slovakia, March 2009
- Euro changeover and inflation in Cyprus and Malta, April 2008
- Information note on euro changeover and inflation in Slovenia, March 2007
For information on the euro changeover effect, please consult the annexes of the following Euro indicators:
The food price monitoring tool aims to increase the transparency along the food supply chain.
It brings together available data on price developments in the different steps of the supply chain. Currently, 26 supply chains are covered. The following price indices are used to show developments at successive stages of the chain:
- agricultural commodity price indices,
- producer price indices,
- import price indices and
- consumer price indices.
Further information
The harmonised index of consumer prices – administered prices (HICP-AP) are analytical indices that provide a summary of the development of product prices that are directly set or influenced to a significant extent by the government. It was first released by Eurostat in February 2010.
The HICP-AP is used as a tool for analysing the causes of inflation and for forecasting inflation. It should be emphasised that these indices provide only an approximate measure of the government influence to the price developments. This is because each category of the classification may include some products whose prices are administered and some that are non-administered.
As a rule, the HICP sub-indices are classified as administered, when more than 50% of the weight of that category comes from the expenditure on products whose prices are administered.
The following HICP-AP data are published by Eurostat:
- administered prices (AP)
- fully administered prices (APF)
- administered prices, energy (AP_NRG)
- administered prices, non-energy (AP_NNRG)
- mainly administered prices (APM)
- overall index excluding fully administered prices (TOT_X_APF)
- overall index excluding mainly administered prices (TOT_X_APM)
- overall index excluding administered prices (TOT_X_AP)
These data are available as indices and rates of change. The sub-indices are classified as mainly or fully administered.
Further information
The harmonised index of consumer prices at constant tax rates (HICP-CT) follows the same computation principles as the HICP, but is based on prices at constant tax rates. The comparison with the standard HICP can show the potential impact of changes in indirect taxes (e.g. value added tax and excise duties) on overall inflation.
The HICP-CT is an important tool for analysing the causes of inflation and for forecasting the impact of future tax changes on inflation. It must be emphasised that they do not provide an exact measure of the impact, rather an indication for the upper limit of the impact.
The difference between HICP and HICP-CT growth rates points to the theoretical impact of tax changes on overall HICP inflation, assuming an instantaneous pass-through of tax rate changes on the price paid by the consumer.
Monthly HICP-CT data are available as
- index (2015=100)
- annual rate of change
- monthly rate of change, including differences between HICP and HICP-CT (as unit of measure)
The HICP-CT series start for most countries in 2002.
More detailed information can be found in:
HICP weights are updated yearly and released with the HICP data for the month of January. They are not revised during the year. However, it is possible to correct mistakes in the weights data as stated in Article 3(3) of EU implementing regulation 2020/1148.
The yearly update includes:
- item weights for the categories of the European classification of individual consumption by purpose (ECOICOP)
- country weights to aggregate countries' indices to euro area and European Union totals
Both are measured as shares per 1 000 and can be found in the datasets