Recital (8)

In accordance with Article 1 of Protocol No 13 on the convergence criteria annexed to the TFEU, the criterion on price stability referred to in the first indent of Article 140(1) TFEU means that a Member State has a price performance that is sustainable and an average rate of inflation, observed over a period of one year before the examination, that does not exceed by more than one and a half percentage points that of, at most, the three best-performing Member States in terms of price stability. For the purpose of the criterion on price stability, inflation is measured by the harmonised indices of consumer prices (HICPs) defined in Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council. To assess the price stability criterion, a Member State’s inflation is measured by the percentage change in the arithmetic average of 12 monthly indices, relative to the arithmetic average of 12 monthly indices from the previous period. A reference value calculated as the simple arithmetic average of the inflation rates of the three best-performing Member States in terms of price stability, plus 1,5 percentage points, was used in the reports of the Commission and the ECB. In the one-year period ending in April 2025, the inflation reference value was calculated to be 2,8 %, with Ireland, Finland and Italy as the three best-performing Member States in terms of price stability, with inflation rates of 1,2 %, 1,3 %, and 1,4 %, respectively.