In the euro area countries, the euro cash changeover was accompanied by the development of a significant gap between actual inflation — as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) — and the inflation perceived by the general public; in Austria, this difference was...

This study compares consumers’ subjective price perceptions with official inflation data for the period from the euro cash changeover in 2002 to 2006. At an annual average of 1.7%, the overall rate of inflation has remained low over the past five years despite adverse effects exerted by...