Inflation rate of the European Union 1997-2024

The inflation rate in the European Union was 2.7 percent in December 2024, a significant decline from the high-point reached in October 2022 of 11.5 percent, the highest rate of inflation recorded in the provided time period. Before 2021, the inflation rate in the EU peaked at 4.4 percent in July 2008 and was lowest in January 2015, when prices were shrinking by 0.5 percent. Currently, Romania has the highest inflation rate among EU member states at 5.5 percent, while Ireland has the lowest inflation rate, at 0.1 percent. 

What is causing high inflation?

Many factors have come together at the same time to drive the rise in prices currently being felt across Europe. Although the demand side of the economy returned quite quickly after the COVID-19 restrictions of 2020, global supply chains are yet to catch up. In particular, energy and food prices have increased due to this bottleneck, especially after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. As of March 2022, the inflation rate for energy was 40.2 percent in the EU and was 5.9 percent for food.