The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices ( HICP) gives comparable measures of inflation for the countries and country groups for which it is produced. It is a macroeconomic indicator that measures the change over time of the prices of consumer goods and services acquired by households. In other words, it is a set of consumer price indices (CPIs) calculated according to a harmonised approach and definitions as laid down in Regulations and Recommendations.

In addition, the HICP provides the official measure of consumer price inflation in the euro area monetary policy purposes and the assessment of inflation convergence as required under the Maastricht criteria for accession to the euro .

The HICP is available for all EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Liechtenstein does not produce HICP.

In addition to the country series there are three country-groups:

The EEA country-group covers Iceland and Norway, in addition to the EU members.

The official indices for the country-groups reflect the changing country composition of the EA, the EU and the EEA.

The HICP for new Member States is chained into the aggregate indices at the time of accession. For analytical purposes Eurostat also computes country-group indices with stable country composition over time (for example, EA21; EU27).