Whose inflation is 2.9%?

EUROSCOPE · Aug 23, 2026 · 8m

Europe's inflation rate is 2.9%. In Romania it's 8.2%. In Sweden it's 0.3%. All three numbers came from the same Eurostat table, published on the same morning.

So whose inflation is 2.9%?

This episode opens up how the number is actually built — the weights, the contributions, and the one ratio nobody reported: energy is under a tenth of the basket but delivered about a third of the headline rate. Strip energy out entirely and the euro area sits at 2.2%. Meanwhile services, at nearly half the basket, quietly account for more than half of the rate.

And underneath the average, the range runs…