$100 in 1923 is worth $100 in 1928,
because prices increased 0.0% over that period, an average of
0.00% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$100
in 1928
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.0%
Average inflation rate
0.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$100
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.00
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1928
17.1
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
$100 in 1923 → 1928
$100
$100 in 1928 → 1923
$100
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1928
Between 1923 and 1928, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.0%, which works out to an average of
0.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$1.00 buys in 1928: the 1923 dollar
lost 0.0% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1928 at the same ratio, 1.00: $1,000 becomes
$1,000, and $10,000 becomes $10,000.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1928
$1.00
$1.00
$5.00
$5.00
$10.00
$10.00
$20.00
$20.00
$50.00
$50.00
$100
$100
$500
$500
$1,000
$1,000
$5,000
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000
$100,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
$1,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1928
Between 1923 and 1928, food rose the most, up 5.8%, while apparel fell 7.7%, against 0.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1928, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.00%
$100
Food
1.14%
$106
Apparel
-1.60%
$92.25
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $102 by
1925, on its way to $100 in 1928; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.3% in 1925, and prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1928, prices fell 1.7% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $100; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1928 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1928: $100 is worth $100 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1928/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1928. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1928/