$100 in 1923 is worth $76.02 in 1933,
because prices declined 24.0% over that period, an average of
2.70% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$76.02
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-24.0%
Average inflation rate
-2.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$76.02
Price difference ($100 base)
-$23.98
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1923 → 1933
$76.02
$100 in 1933 → 1923
$132
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1933
Between 1923 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices declined 24.0%, which works out to an average of
-2.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$1.32 buys in 1933: the 1923 dollar
gained 31.5% in purchasing power over
these 10 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 1933 at the same ratio, 0.76: $1,000 becomes
$760, and $10,000 becomes $7,602.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1933
$1.00
$0.76
$5.00
$3.80
$10.00
$7.60
$20.00
$15.20
$50.00
$38.01
$100
$76.02
$500
$380
$1,000
$760
$5,000
$3,801
$10,000
$7,602
$100,000
$76,023
$1,000,000
$760,234
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1933
Every category fell between 1923 and 1933: food the most, down 32.5%, and apparel the least, down 30.6%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.70%
$76.02
Apparel
-3.59%
$69.37
Food
-3.85%
$67.53
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–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1933
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.3% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$76.02
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $100 by
1928, on its way to $76.02 in 1933; 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 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $76.02; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1933: $100 is worth $76.02 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1933/