Drift
Euro-area purchasing-power monitor Reading of 15 Sep 2026

Your money is standing still. Prices are not.

Every euro sitting in a low-interest account is quietly losing value. Drift measures exactly how much, for your country and your balance, from official figures — and tells you when the answer changes.

Euro-area inflation
3.3%
Avg. instant-access deposit
0.28%
Real return
−2.92%

Step 1 — Your position

Three numbers, and we can tell you the truth about your savings.

No account, no email, nothing stored. The calculation runs in your browser.

In euro

Purchasing power lost over the next 12 months

−€468

Step 2 — The drift

What five more years of standing still looks like.

Both lines show what your balance would actually buy, in today's prices. The dashed line is the best instant-access rate broadly available across the EEA today.

At your current rate At 2.25% (best broadly available)
Projected purchasing power over five years

Step 3 — The uncomfortable finding

Even the best account on the market may not fix this.

Rates below are advertised headline rates as published on 12 September 2026. The final column is the one that matters: what each actually returns after inflation in your country.

Real return after inflation
Where the money sits Headline rate Real return Availability

Step 4 — Why this isn't a calculator

An answer that watches itself.

Inflation is republished every month. Deposit rates move without warning and promotional rates expire. An answer you got today is wrong by winter. Drift re-runs your figures against the new official data and only writes to you when the change is big enough to act on.

Drift Example alert would arrive ~16 Dec 2026

Your drift changed. You are now losing less.

Inflation in your country was republished this morning. Your real return moved with it, and the gap between what you earn and what prices do has narrowed.

Your promotional rate also has an expiry date. We are counting down to it, and we will write again two weeks before it reverts.

Illustrative only — figures in a real alert are drawn from the Eurostat release published that day.

Sources for every figure on this page

  1. Inflation: Eurostat flash estimate, annual HICP by country, August 2026 — published 1 September 2026.
  2. Deposit rates: European Central Bank, euro area bank interest rate statistics, July 2026 — households, overnight deposits (0.28%) and new deposits with agreed maturity (2.14%).
  3. Market rates: publicly advertised provider rates as compiled on 12 September 2026. Promotional rates are time-limited and country-restricted.

This is a measurement, not advice. Drift calculates the arithmetic relationship between published inflation and a rate you enter. It does not know your circumstances and is not a personal recommendation, an investment service, or a comparison of every product on the market. Rates shown are headline rates that change frequently and may have conditions, balance caps, or eligibility limits — verify directly with the provider before moving money. Money held with investment firms may be protected differently from bank deposits. Prototype: figures are fixed to the dates above; the production version reads live from the Eurostat and ECB APIs.