1.3 Inflation over time

Inflation rates do not only vary across countries, they also vary over time.

1.3.1 Inflation over time

It is important to have a sense of medium-term developments in inflation. This is because year-on-year inflation in the prices of individual goods and services can fluctuate a great deal in the short term (from month to month), so focusing on average inflation over the medium to longer term provides a clearer picture of developments.

For this reason, inflation rates of several individual goods and services are grouped into categories. Monitoring developments in groups of goods and services may give a better picture of price developments over time and a more reliable indication of how prices may develop over the medium term.

1.3.2 An overview of inflation developments over time

The euro area inflation rate was [Value 1]% in [Date 1]. Even though in the short term inflation might change in response to temporary economic fluctuations, a different picture emerges if we take a medium-term perspective. The same is true for specific categories of goods and services, as some of them have recorded more volatile price developments over the years. Use the interactive visuals to compare inflation rates for different categories over time. Is there a specific category that is more volatile?

Click to interact and compare countries