Inflation in Belgium
In the year to August 2026, consumer prices in Belgium rose 4.0%, up from 3.6% a month earlier. Since January 1920 prices have risen 8,066.4%, which means €100 then buys what €8,166.40 buys now, so the same basket of goods costs 81.7 times what it did.
Cumulative & Yearly Inflation
Inflation in Belgium by year
Inflation is the change in that year's average prices against the year before, which is the figure usually quoted. The last two columns take €100 in January of that year and show what it is worth in August 2026, the most recent month on record. Only years measured in full are listed, so the year now running appears once it ends.
| Year | Inflation | €100 is now | Cumulative inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | -0.1% | 3,613.29 | 3,513.3% |
| 1960 | 0.3% | 971.32 | 871.3% |
| 1990 | 3.4% | 231.79 | 131.8% |
| 2020 | 0.7% | 128.29 | 28.3% |
| 2025 | 2.5% | 103.94 | 3.9% |
Year by year, 1921 to 2025
| Year | Inflation | €100 is now | Cumulative inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1921 | -12.2% | 7,186.44 | 7,086.4% |
| 1922 | -6.5% | 8,356.32 | 8,256.3% |
| 1923 | 14.7% | 8,443.59 | 8,343.6% |
| 1924 | 16.9% | 6,737.28 | 6,637.3% |
| 1925 | 3.4% | 6,207.09 | 6,107.1% |
| 1926 | 19.4% | 6,136.43 | 6,036.4% |
| 1927 | 27.1% | 4,283.31 | 4,183.3% |
| 1928 | 4.4% | 3,977.73 | 3,877.7% |
| 1929 | 6.7% | 3,777.92 | 3,677.9% |
| 1930 | -0.1% | 3,613.29 | 3,513.3% |
| 1931 | -8.7% | 3,822.57 | 3,722.6% |
| 1932 | -9.7% | 4,300.39 | 4,200.4% |
| 1933 | -2.0% | 4,466.71 | 4,366.7% |
| 1934 | -5.5% | 4,653.09 | 4,553.1% |
| 1935 | -1.8% | 5,037.22 | 4,937.2% |
| 1936 | 4.7% | 4,721.02 | 4,621.0% |
| 1937 | 7.2% | 4,600.14 | 4,500.1% |
| 1938 | 3.6% | 4,221.80 | 4,121.8% |
| 1939 | 1.1% | 4,202.70 | 4,102.7% |
| 1948 | 14.7% | 1,214.21 | 1,114.2% |
| 1949 | -3.3% | 1,130.26 | 1,030.3% |
| 1950 | -0.8% | 1,191.44 | 1,091.4% |
| 1951 | 9.4% | 1,144.22 | 1,044.2% |
| 1952 | 0.9% | 1,048.69 | 948.7% |
| 1953 | -0.3% | 1,069.63 | 969.6% |
| 1954 | 1.8% | 1,058.68 | 958.7% |
| 1955 | -0.5% | 1,049.93 | 949.9% |
| 1956 | 2.4% | 1,048.12 | 948.1% |
| 1957 | 3.2% | 1,011.69 | 911.7% |
| 1958 | 1.3% | 985.53 | 885.5% |
| 1959 | 1.2% | 985.17 | 885.2% |
| 1960 | 0.3% | 971.32 | 871.3% |
| 1961 | 1.0% | 970.00 | 870.0% |
| 1962 | 1.4% | 960.61 | 860.6% |
| 1963 | 2.1% | 946.35 | 846.4% |
| 1964 | 4.2% | 906.93 | 806.9% |
| 1965 | 4.1% | 874.36 | 774.4% |
| 1966 | 4.2% | 838.95 | 739.0% |
| 1967 | 2.9% | 815.03 | 715.0% |
| 1968 | 2.8% | 787.70 | 687.7% |
| 1969 | 3.7% | 766.68 | 666.7% |
| 1970 | 3.9% | 734.71 | 634.7% |
| 1971 | 4.3% | 711.81 | 611.8% |
| 1972 | 5.4% | 674.60 | 574.6% |
| 1973 | 7.0% | 631.30 | 531.3% |
| 1974 | 12.7% | 587.05 | 487.1% |
| 1975 | 12.8% | 507.71 | 407.7% |
| 1976 | 9.2% | 458.11 | 358.1% |
| 1977 | 7.1% | 425.35 | 325.3% |
| 1978 | 4.5% | 402.13 | 302.1% |
| 1979 | 4.5% | 386.83 | 286.8% |
| 1980 | 6.7% | 365.02 | 265.0% |
| 1981 | 7.6% | 341.25 | 241.2% |
| 1982 | 8.7% | 315.21 | 215.2% |
| 1983 | 7.7% | 290.84 | 190.8% |
| 1984 | 6.3% | 272.18 | 172.2% |
| 1985 | 4.9% | 259.11 | 159.1% |
| 1986 | 1.3% | 250.38 | 150.4% |
| 1987 | 1.6% | 248.19 | 148.2% |
| 1988 | 1.2% | 245.87 | 145.9% |
| 1989 | 3.1% | 240.12 | 140.1% |
| 1990 | 3.4% | 231.79 | 131.8% |
| 1991 | 3.2% | 223.13 | 123.1% |
| 1992 | 2.4% | 218.16 | 118.2% |
| 1993 | 2.8% | 212.14 | 112.1% |
| 1994 | 2.4% | 207.13 | 107.1% |
| 1995 | 1.5% | 203.32 | 103.3% |
| 1996 | 2.1% | 199.41 | 99.4% |
| 1997 | 1.6% | 194.92 | 94.9% |
| 1998 | 1.0% | 194.10 | 94.1% |
| 1999 | 1.1% | 192.27 | 92.3% |
| 2000 | 2.5% | 188.90 | 88.9% |
| 2001 | 2.5% | 184.82 | 84.8% |
| 2002 | 1.6% | 179.61 | 79.6% |
| 2003 | 1.6% | 177.47 | 77.5% |
| 2004 | 2.1% | 174.70 | 74.7% |
| 2005 | 2.8% | 170.84 | 70.8% |
| 2006 | 1.8% | 166.46 | 66.5% |
| 2007 | 1.8% | 163.73 | 63.7% |
| 2008 | 4.5% | 158.26 | 58.3% |
| 2009 | -0.1% | 154.68 | 54.7% |
| 2010 | 2.2% | 153.72 | 53.7% |
| 2011 | 3.5% | 148.93 | 48.9% |
| 2012 | 2.8% | 143.68 | 43.7% |
| 2013 | 1.1% | 141.62 | 41.6% |
| 2014 | 0.3% | 140.03 | 40.0% |
| 2015 | 0.6% | 140.94 | 40.9% |
| 2016 | 2.0% | 138.52 | 38.5% |
| 2017 | 2.1% | 134.95 | 34.9% |
| 2018 | 2.1% | 132.68 | 32.7% |
| 2019 | 1.4% | 130.10 | 30.1% |
| 2020 | 0.7% | 128.29 | 28.3% |
| 2021 | 2.4% | 127.97 | 28.0% |
| 2022 | 9.6% | 118.94 | 18.9% |
| 2023 | 4.0% | 110.08 | 10.1% |
| 2024 | 3.1% | 108.18 | 8.2% |
| 2025 | 2.5% | 103.94 | 3.9% |
A short history of inflation in Belgium
Stabilising the Franc (1920 to 1927)
Belgian inflation peaked at 48.0% in the year to March 1927. The First World War had been financed by occupation currency and debt, and the franc lost value steadily through the 1920s until it was stabilised in October 1926 at about a seventh of its pre-war gold parity. The inflation recorded in those years is that devaluation working through prices.
The Occupation Years (1940 to 1947)
Belgian price statistics were not collected between the spring of 1940 and the beginning of 1947, because the German occupation interrupted the work, so those seven years are simply absent from the record. What the figures either side show is that prices roughly trebled across them. Belgium has since been among the more stable European economies, and adopted the euro at its launch in 1999.
Post-Covid Inflation (2021 to 2023)
In Belgium, prices rose fastest in October 2022, at 12.3%. The causes of the post-Covid inflation were global in nature, beginning with the lockdowns: factories and ports closed and the shipping between them fell out of sequence, so goods took longer to make and longer to arrive. Governments had spent heavily supporting household incomes through those closures, so when restrictions lifted there was money waiting to be spent and not enough on the shelves to spend it on. Then in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting two of the world's largest suppliers of wheat, fertiliser, oil and gas at once, and the cost of everything grown, heated or transported rose with them.
Because the causes were shared, so was the timing: most countries peaked within a few months of one another in late 2022. The major inflation events covers this episode and the others in more detail.
Common questions about inflation in Belgium
What is the current inflation rate in Belgium?
Prices in Belgium rose 4.0% in the year to August 2026. That is up from 3.6% a month earlier.
What would €100 in January 1920 be worth today?
€100.00 in January 1920 has the same buying power as €8,166.40 in August 2026, a rise of 8,066.4%.
What would €100 in January 1950 be worth today?
€100.00 in January 1950 has the same buying power as €1,191.44 in August 2026, a rise of 1,091.4%.
What would €100 in January 1990 be worth today?
€100.00 in January 1990 has the same buying power as €231.79 in August 2026, a rise of 131.8%.
What would €100 in January 2020 be worth today?
€100.00 in January 2020 has the same buying power as €128.29 in August 2026, a rise of 28.3%.
What is Belgium's inflation target?
Belgium targets 2%. The latest reading of 4.0% is running 2.0 points above it.
How inflation in Belgium is measured
The figures on this page come from Statbel (consumptieprijsindex, the open-data series across all base years). The series is indexed so that a chosen base year equals 100, and the calculator works out the ratio between any two dates you pick.
The currency shown is the euro (€). Coverage runs from January 1920 to August 2026, and updates automatically as each new release is published. Figures for the most recent periods can be revised by the statistics office after first publication.
No index was published between May 1940 and December 1946: Belgium was under German occupation from May 1940, and regular publication only resumed in January 1947, so no date inside that window can be chosen. The readings either side are on the same basis, so a span crossing the gap is still measured correctly: prices rose 178.9% between April 1940 and January 1947.
Use this data
Click the reference to select it.
Compare Inflation. “Inflation in Belgium.” Figures for August 2026. https://compareinflation.com/inflation-in-belgium/
Download both series (CSV) — 1,200 months of the Consumer Price Index from January 1920 and 368 of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) from January 1996, with the annual rate for each.