The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for the euro area is published by the European Commission (Eurostat) and generally available from 1996 onwards. Euro area results are obtained by aggregating indices for individual countries.
The HICP is broken down following the European classification of individual consumption according to purpose (ECOICOP) and by goods and services special aggregates derived from it. The HICP covers monetary expenditure on final consumption by resident and non-resident households on the economic territory of the euro area. The seasonally adjusted HICP data are compiled by the ECB.
HICPs measure changes in prices of goods and services covered by final household monetary consumption expenditure, including all indirect taxes paid by consumers. HICPs have a common coverage of goods and services across countries but country specific item lists and item weights. HICPs do not cover expenditure for owner occupied housing. For items fully or partly paid or refunded by the government, HICPs include only the share that is paid by the consumer (e.g. the "out-of-the-pocket" expenditure for health services). The HICPs are classified according to the ECOICOP. Additional compiled aggregates are also published.
Monthly, Quarterly, Annual
2015=100
For information about the naming convention (series key dimensions and metadata), refer to the ICP underlying DSD (ECB_ICP1) maintained by the ECB.
Following the Maastricht Treaty the aim of the HICP is to measure inflation by means of the consumer price index on a comparable basis, taking into account differences in national definitions. Eurostat dedicated HICP website (which include short guide for users)
X-12 ARIMA
ICP - Indices of Consumer prices
European Commission (Eurostat) and European Central Bank calculations based on Eurostat data
17 working days after the end of the reference month
Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 on HICPs and implementation regulations;
Download the series catalogue containing a full list of series and associated metadata of the dataset ICP in CSV format (zipped)