Eurostat confirmed euro-area headline inflation at 3.2% for August, a notch below the 3.3% flash estimate published on 1 September. The rate rose from 2.9% in July, driven almost entirely by energy prices.
What changed between flash and final
The 12-month rate came in 0.1 percentage points lower than the flash as more complete country data arrived. Services inflation was revised down from 3.3% in the flash to 3.0% in the final — the single biggest component change. This kind of small revision is normal: flash estimates cover roughly 95% of the euro-area economy. For a full explanation of why flashes and finals differ, see our flash vs final explainer.
Energy dominated, everything else was calm
Energy contributed roughly 0.9 percentage points to the overall 3.2% rate — more than a quarter of the total. Without energy, the euro-area rate would have been approximately 2.3%, barely above the ECB's 2% target. Food, alcohol and tobacco added just 0.1 points. Services, the component the ECB watches most closely for persistence, eased to 3.0%.
That gap between headline and core signals that underlying price pressures remain modest. The broader cross-country story — including the UK and US readings published earlier in September — is covered in our August analysis piece.
Country composition
The euro area in this release covers 20 member states using 2025 weights. Bulgaria joined on 1 January 2026; its addition to the euro-area HICP composition is explained in our data update. Its first full annual comparison in the EA aggregate appears in the January 2027 release.