Everyone cares about how much their purchases cost, especially if prices change a lot in a short period of time or in an unpredictable way.
Price stability means money maintains its value over time, so that the same quantity of money buys roughly the same amount of goods and services tomorrow as it does today.
For this reason, central banks monitor prices to make sure they do not rise or fall sharply over a long period of time, to safeguard the price stability that people need to plan their purchase and investment decisions, and so foster economic growth in the euro area.
You can find out more in our Monetary policy
section