Explainers
Plain-language explainers on eurozone inflation, the HICP, ECB policy and the forces behind the numbers — each one grounded in official Eurostat and ECB data.
Why Dutch inflation swings wider than the euro area's — and why its 2023 dip was arithmetic
Dutch inflation peaked at 17.1% in 2022, higher than anywhere in the euro area outside the Baltic states, turned negative a year later, then ran above the euro-area average through 2024 and 2025. The causes are mostly home-grown: a gas-heavy basket and the way it was measured, rents and excise that move in yearly steps, and a labour market tighter than the euro area's.
Why Portuguese inflation follows the tourists — and misses the housing boom
Portugal's harmonised inflation counts what visitors spend, so hotels and restaurants weigh far more in it than in the euro-area basket, and energy less. That tilt and a run of dated tax and energy measures shaped Portuguese inflation after 2021. The country's biggest price story, house prices, is not in the number at all.
Why Swiss inflation runs so low — and why rents are the number to watch
Swiss harmonised inflation has run below the euro area's in every month since 2019, peaking at 3.3% when the bloc hit 10.7%. A small energy basket, electricity tariffs that reset once a year, flat health prices and a strong franc hold it down; rents are the main domestic force pushing it up.
Why French inflation runs lower — and later — than the euro area's
France had the euro area's lowest inflation in 2022 and the second-lowest in 2025, and its 2023 peak came four months after the bloc's. The reasons are largely institutional: a state-set electricity tariff and a 2022 price shield that pushed the energy shock into 2023 and 2024. Underneath, core inflation has stayed unusually calm.
Why Greek inflation runs above the euro area's — and why tourists are part of it
Greek inflation has run above the euro-area rate in most months since late 2023, even though Greek prices rose less than the euro area's from 2019 to 2025. The reasons are specific: a basket shaped by tourists, fast-rising rents and energy that arrives through heating oil.
Why Hungarian inflation swings so hard — and what the headline hides
Hungary went from the EU's highest inflation peak, 26.2% in January 2023, to rates below the euro-area average in 2026. Price controls and the forint shaped much of both swings, while services inflation, driven by wages, stayed high.
Why Italian inflation spikes with energy — and fades fast
Italy had the highest 2022 inflation peak of the euro area's big four, then the lowest rate of the four for sixteen months from late 2023. Gas-fired power and fast-repricing energy bills make prices jump; wage bargaining that leaves out imported energy helps stop the jump from sticking.
Why Polish inflation moves in steps — and why services set the floor
Outside the euro, Poland sets its own interest rates and a large slice of its energy prices. Tax cuts, freezes and their unwinding have moved its inflation in steps since 2022, while fast wage growth keeps services inflation well above the euro area's.
Why Spanish inflation swings harder — and turns sooner — than the euro area's
Spanish inflation rose sooner, fell sooner and swung further than the euro area's, yet since 2019 prices in both have risen almost exactly as much. The swings come from an electricity tariff tied to the wholesale market and tax changes that hit the index on fixed dates.
Why Swedish inflation swings further than the euro area's — and why its 2026 low is borrowed
Swedish inflation peaked later and higher than the euro area's in 2022, then fell to the lowest of the 30 European economies tracked here by August 2026. A floating krona, variable-rate mortgages and temporary tax cuts explain the swing — and why the figure you see depends on which of Sweden's three indices you read.
Food inflation vs headline inflation — why your grocery bill and the HICP rate disagree
Food is under a fifth of the euro-area price basket, swings far more than the rest of it, and is measured together with alcohol and tobacco. How to read food inflation next to the headline rate — and why a falling rate does not mean cheaper food.
House prices, rents and inflation — three numbers that are not the same thing
Euro-area house prices are rising about 5% a year, rents under 3%, and neither is what the headline inflation rate measures. What each figure covers, why they diverge, and why the cost of owning a home is missing from the HICP.
Why Austrian inflation keeps running above Germany's
Austria and Germany share a language, a border and much of an economic model — yet Austrian inflation has sat persistently above German inflation for years. The gap is small, consistent, and mostly about services and how prices are set.
German inflation, and why it is the euro area's benchmark
Germany is the yardstick almost every euro-area comparison is drawn against — the Bund, the biggest economy, the low-inflation anchor. Here is what its number actually measures, and why 'Germany is normal' is a bad assumption.
Flash vs final HICP — why the eurozone inflation number changes twice a month
Eurostat publishes euro-area inflation twice for every month: a flash estimate on day one, then a final figure mid-month. They are not always the same number, and knowing which one you are reading matters.
Slovak inflation: why services stay hot while food prices fall
Slovakia's headline rate has come down steadily through 2026, but the composition is unusual — food is outright cheaper than a year ago while services run well above the euro-area average. That split tells you where the pressure actually sits.
Why Belgian inflation runs hotter — and stickier — than its neighbours'
Belgium sits near the top of the euro-area inflation table while Germany and France sit near the bottom. The reason is largely institutional: Belgium is the one euro member that still indexes wages to prices automatically.
10-year government bond yields, explained — and why they differ inside the euro area
Nineteen governments borrow in the same currency at nineteen different prices. What the 10-year yield actually measures, why the German Bund is the benchmark, and what a spread is telling you.
Croatia after the euro: what actually happened to prices
Croatia adopted the euro in January 2023 amid fears that shops would round everything up. Two years on, the data tells a more interesting story than the headlines did.
Where is euro-area inflation heading? How to read the official forecasts
Searching for an inflation forecast returns a wall of numbers with different dates and owners. Which projections are official, how often each updates, and how to tell a forecast from a market bet.
How the ECB sets interest rates — and how a decision reaches your mortgage
Three policy rates, one target, a meeting every six weeks. What the Governing Council actually decides, and the path a rate change travels before it lands in loan offers and bond yields.
Mortgage rates across the euro area: why your country pays more (or less)
One ECB rate, very different mortgage bills. The fixed-versus-floating split, national banking quirks, and what actually decides the rate a household in Helsinki or Paris gets offered.
One currency, twenty-one inflation rates — why euro-area countries diverge
Every euro country shares the same money and the same central bank, yet their inflation rates can sit percentage points apart. The gap is structural, not a statistical quirk.
Why Irish inflation often reads differently from what Dublin feels
Ireland can post one of the euro area's tamer HICP rates while households swear everything is dearer. The gap is real and has names: housing's odd place in the index, and a very open economy.
Why Romania's inflation keeps topping the EU charts
Romania has spent much of the past years at or near the top of the EU inflation ranking. The causes are specific and mostly home-grown: unwound price caps, tax rises, fast wages and a stubborn deficit.
Why Spain's youth unemployment stays so stubbornly high
Spain's under-25 unemployment rate has topped European charts for decades, in booms as well as busts. The causes are structural — and knowing them changes how to read every monthly release.
Bulgaria joins the euro — what it means for inflation
On 1 January 2026 Bulgaria became the 21st member of the euro area. Because the lev was already pegged to the euro, the monetary shock is small — but the inflation story is worth understanding.
Why Baltic inflation runs hotter than Germany's under one ECB rate
Lithuania's harmonised inflation is running near 5% while Germany's sits below 3% — under the exact same central bank. The gap is structural, and it is the clearest illustration of the euro's "one size fits none" problem.
HICP vs CPI — why eurozone inflation uses a different yardstick
The number the ECB targets is the HICP, not your country's national CPI. They usually move together, but the differences are real and occasionally large enough to matter.