Fittex
Euro area monetary policy: Quarterly overview, March 2025
In this issue... ● US President Trump starts enacting his economic policy agenda and threatens the EU with tariffs. ● Headline inflation falls to 2.4% as underlying indicators ease. ● ECB reduces key policy rate by 25 bps. ● The euro continues to strengthen against the dollar amid growing uncertainty on US’s tariffs. ● The Fed keeps rate unchanged among economic uncertainty while challenges to independence arise. ● ECB reckons new US approach to cryptos and CBDCs strengthens the case for ...
Including the costs of owner-occupied housing in inflation measurement
Housing costs make up a significant part of households' final consumption expenditures. However, these costs are only partially captured by the inflation indicator on which the European Central Bank (ECB) bases its monetary policy decisions. While the costs of paying rent feed into the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) – the indicator used to assess the achievement of the ECB's price stability objective – the costs of living in a home owned by the occupier do not. Instead, only expenditure ...
Housing and the Cost of Living
The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), which constitutes the sole official measure of inflation in the euro area, leaves out an important part of household expenditure, namely the cost of owner-occupied housing (OOH). Most other developed economies include estimates of OOH in their consumer price index. The existing, even if imperfect, indicator available today from Eurostat should be included immediately in the HICP. It is unacceptable that Eurostat and the Commission have not been able ...
Inflation Measurement: Role of Owner-Occupied Housing Costs
The harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) is the measure used by the European Central Bank (ECB) to define its price stability target and guide policy. As such, it needs to relate closely to the actual inflation that households in the euro area are experiencing. Housing costs, an important part of household expenditures, are currently included in the HICP index through rental costs and only some minor elements of owner-occupied housing (OOH) costs. In July 2021, the ECB Governing Council recommended ...