According to one survey, households believed that annual euro area inflation between 2004 and 2018 was close to 9%, when in fact it was 1.6%. [21]  Does the consumer price index need to be changed? The third element relates to the way we measure inflation.
The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) has been a tremendous achievement in terms of providing a reliable, timely and comparable measure of consumer inflation across EU Member States. But whether it adequately captures the cost of living should be subject to regular review. A well-known example is the cost of housing.