Your money: Europe
The euro area — 20 countries sharing one currency — is the world's second-biggest consumer market, and it imports most of its energy. When global energy markets convulse, European households feel it early and hard. This page tracks whether euro-area prices are outrunning euro-area pay.
Latest price reading: June 2026 · latest wage reading: January 2026 · recomputed automatically every night
Household squeeze meter
wages keeping upPrices are up 2.7% on a year ago (June 2026) while hourly wage costs are up 3.3% (Q1 2026) — wages are currently keeping up.
Consumer prices
+2.7%vs a year ago
as of June 2026
Wages
+3.3%vs a year ago
as of January 2026
Gap (prices − wages)
−0.6pp
above zero = prices pulling ahead of pay
How it's measured: Euro-area headline inflation (HICP, all items, 20 countries) compared with Eurostat's labour-cost index for wages & salaries (whole business economy, hourly, quarterly) — the gap is price growth minus wage-cost growth.
Prices vs wages since 2019
Consumer prices and wages, each rebased so its 2019 average = 100 — whenever the price line sits above the wage line, the average household is losing ground.
Prices: Eurostat's monthly harmonised index (HICP), published ~2–3 weeks after each month ends. Wages: Eurostat's labour-cost index (wages & salaries) — a separate, quarterly series with a ~2–3 month lag, so the chart shows only months where both sides have a value; the freshest price-only months appear in the meter and tiles instead. Nothing is interpolated.
- Source:
- Eurostat — EU statistics office
- Newest data point:
- June 2026
- Last checked:
- 29 July 2026
- Updates:
- monthly
- Confidence:
- high
Prices by category since 2019 (euro area)
Browse how much more each part of the basket costs than before the pandemic — the headline is the rise since 2019, with the latest year-over-year change below it.
All prices (euro area)
+26.6%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Food (euro area)
+35.2%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Energy (euro area)
+45.5%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Rent (euro area)
+16.1%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Transport fuel (euro area)
+31.8%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Euro area bread & cereals prices (HICP)
+32.9%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Euro area meat prices (HICP)
+37.4%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Euro area fish & seafood prices (HICP)
+32.7%
since 2019
as of June 2026
Monthly Eurostat HICP data, published ~2–3 weeks after each month ends. Rising costs read red, falling read green. Tax check: HICP is legally defined as the price consumers actually pay, VAT included (EU Regulation 2016/792) — nothing to add on top.
Price trend of the tracked categories — euro area
Each of the 33 tracked HICP categories above is rebased to its own 2019 average (=100), then averaged together — an equal weight for every category, not a euro total (no individual item-level € prices exist for Europe, unlike the US or Japan pages, so this uses category price indexes instead). A rising line means the tracked categories are, on average, more expensive than their 2019 average.
What households actually pay for energy — Germany
Not an index — the actual price of a kilowatt-hour at home, all taxes included, from Eurostat's household energy price survey.
Electricity — Germany households
0.39€/kWh
+29.7% vs 2019 average
as of July 2025
Natural gas — Germany households
0.12€/kWh
+100.5% vs 2019 average
as of July 2025
Eurostat publishes these prices twice a year — each point covers a half-year (stored under its first month) and appears months after it ends, so this is the slowest-moving number on the page.
Germany check: the euro area's biggest economy had consumer prices +2.4% vs a year earlier (as of June 2026) — the euro-area average was +2.7%. One country can sit well above or below the shared average: the euro area is 20 different economies with one currency.
Energy prices — the crisis history
The euro area's consumer energy price index — electricity, gas and fuels together. Europe imports most of its energy, so global energy shocks land on these households quickly; the 2021–22 energy crisis is the clearest example.
Monthly euro-area index, published ~2–3 weeks after each month ends. A price index tracks change over time, not a euro amount — the tiles above show actual €/kWh.
- Source:
- Eurostat — EU statistics office
- Newest data point:
- June 2026
- Last checked:
- 29 July 2026
- Updates:
- monthly
- Confidence:
- high
Where this data comes from
- Eurostat — EU statistics office — monthly, published ~2-3 weeks after month end
- Eurostat — EU statistics office — quarterly, published ~2.5 months after each quarter ends
- Eurostat — EU statistics office — semi-annual, published several months after each half-year ends
- Tax check: HICP is legally defined (EU Regulation 2016/792, Art. 2) as the prices actually paid by consumers, including any taxes — so every category above already reflects VAT. Nothing needs adding on top.
- The tracked-categories trend line averages each of the 33 priced categories relative to its own 2019 average (100 = that category's 2019 average) — no individual € item prices exist for Europe, so this uses category price indexes instead.
- Household electricity and gas prices are semi-annual (all taxes included); each half-year is stored under January / July.
- Squeeze and category figures cover the whole euro area (20 countries); Germany's own headline rate and household energy prices are shown separately.
- The wage side is Eurostat's labour-cost index (wages & salaries, whole business economy) — hourly wage costs paid by employers, not negotiated pay settlements.
- HICP: dataset prc_hicp_minr (classification dimension "coicop18", headline code TOTAL), unit I25 — index base 2025=100 ("Index, 2025=100"); euro-area aggregate EA20; latest month 2026-06. Monthly; Eurostat publishes full figures ~2-3 weeks after each month ends (flash estimate earlier).
- HICP sub-indices (same single request, dataset and unit as the headline series): bread_cereals=CP0111, meat=CP0112, fish=CP0113, dairy=CP0114, oils_fats=CP0115, fruit=CP0116, vegetables=CP0117, sugar_confectionery=CP0118, ready_made_food=CP0119, juices=CP0121, coffee=CP0122, tea=CP0123, water=CP0125, soft_drinks=CP0126, alcohol_tobacco=CP02, clothing=CP03, housing=CP04, furnishings=CP05, health=CP06, transport=CP07, communication=CP08, recreation=CP09, education=CP10, restaurants=CP11, insurance_financial=CP12, personal_care_misc=CP13, electricity_idx=CP0451, gas_idx=CP0452. All are price indexes (base 2025=100) showing how prices move — never euro shelf prices — and each is best-effort: one failing skips just that series with a note, never the headline series.
- Wage index: lc_lci_r2_q (labour cost index, wages & salaries component D11, NACE B-S, seasonally & calendar adjusted, 2020=100). Quarterly with ~2.5 months publication lag; each quarter is stored under its first month ("2026-Q1" → "2026-01"), the same convention as the US quarterly earnings tracker.
- Household electricity prices: nrg_pc_204 (band KWH2500-4999, all taxes and levies included, EUR per kWh; euro-area aggregate EA). Published twice a year with ~4 months lag; each half-year price is stored under its first month ("2025-S1" → "2025-01", "2025-S2" → "2025-07").
- Household natural gas prices: nrg_pc_202 (band GJ20-199, all taxes and levies included, EUR per kWh; euro-area aggregate EA). Published twice a year with ~4 months lag; each half-year price is stored under its first month ("2025-S1" → "2025-01", "2025-S2" → "2025-07").