France’s year-on-year inflation levels increased by 0.3 percentage points between January and February 2026 to reach 1.1%, new data shows.
It means it remains among the lowest in Europe and the second-lowest in the eurozone behind Cyprus (0.9%).
Small monthly increases to inflation in several areas (services, +1.54 percentage points, food, alcohol and tobacco, +0.48 percentage points and non-energy industrial goods, +0.17 percentage points) all led to inflationary increase across the bloc.
A small reduction in interest on energy (-0.30 percentage points) helped mitigate the increases.
The map below shows inflation rates across Europe (the EU as well as European Economic Area (EEA) members Norway and Iceland, but does not show microstate Liechtenstein) as well as Switzerland, which is neither in the EU nor EEA but the single market.
The EU finally achieved its long-held ambition of year-on-year inflation of 2% across the bloc in January 2026, however in February increases meant the threshold was surpassed.
Advertisement
It is likely to put on hold any plans by the European Central Bank to reduce interest rates, particularly as inflation is set to increase across Europe due to the conflict in the Middle East.
In comparison to Europe, the US annual inflation rate was at 2.4% in February 2026, stable to the previous month. UK February figures are set to be released later in the month, but in January 2026 were at 3.0%, down from 3.4% in December 2025.
