What has your euro lost?

Enter an amount and the month you want to measure from. The calculator shows how many euros you need today for the same purchases and how much purchasing power money kept as cash has lost. The data are Eurostat’s official Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for Greece and the euro area, up to September 2026.

Why the euro loses value

The euro is fiat money: it is not tied to any quantity of gold or another commodity, and its quantity grows when the central bank and the commercial banks create new money. In Austrian terminology, inflation is precisely this increase in the quantity of money; rising prices are its consequence. The calculator shows that consequence as a statistical index records it, and it is borne above all by those who hold cash or live on fixed incomes.

“Inflation also penalizes thrift and encourages debt, for any sum of money loaned will be repaid in dollars of lower purchasing power than when originally received.”

— Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, II.2 “The Economic Effects of Inflation”

What the index shows and what it does not

• The HICP is a statistical average: it tracks the prices of a “basket” of goods and services weighted by the spending of the average household. Your own basket may differ a great deal.
• It does not include the costs of owner-occupied housing or the prices of assets such as real estate and shares, where new money often goes first.
• Prices do not rise all together or at the same pace. This is why the Austrians treat the price level as a statistical construct, not a measurement: the number shows the direction and the order of magnitude, not each person’s exact loss.
• The calculation applies to money kept as cash or in an account that pays no interest; it ignores interest, taxes and investment returns.

“These index numbers are at best rather crude and inaccurate illustrations of changes which have occurred.”

— Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XII, §4 “Stabilization”

Glossary terms: purchasing power · inflation · fiat money · price level · central bank. See also: Who gets the new money first? · The ECB: When a Committee Sets the Price of Time.