Details
- Identification
- Discussion Paper 240
- Publication date
- 30 January 2026
- Authors
- Milan Výškrabka | Adrian Bodea | Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
- Countries
- Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia
Description
Making use of well-established benchmarks as well as novel state-of-the-art models, this paper aims to assess price and cost competitiveness positions of EU countries in the wake of the recent inflation shocks.
Highlights
- The EU has experienced very heterogenous inflation developments in the past five years.
- This high inflation heterogeneity among EU Member States was mainly the result of country-specific idiosyncratic factors related to imports, profits and wages.
- Large inflation differentials resulted in sizeable changes in the price and cost competitiveness positions of countries, with real appreciation being particularly strong in the Central and Eastern European region over 2020-2024.
Information and identifiers
Discussion Paper 240. January 2026. Brussels. PDF. 48pp. Tab. Graph. Bibliogr. Free.
KC-01-25-069-EN-N (online)
ISBN 978-92-68-31842-3 (online)
ISSN 2443-8022 (online)
doi:10.2765/2657037 (online)
JEL classification: E310, C67, J30, O47..
Disclaimer
European Economy Discussion Papers are written by the staff of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, or by experts working in association with them, to inform discussion on economic policy and to stimulate debate. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of the European Commission.
