$100 in 1927 is worth $99.43 in 1943,
because prices declined 0.6% over that period, an average of
0.04% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$99.43
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-0.6%
Average inflation rate
-0.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$99.43
Price difference ($100 base)
-$0.57
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1927 → 1943
$99.43
$100 in 1943 → 1927
$101
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1943
Between 1927 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices declined 0.6%, which works out to an average of
-0.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$1.01 buys in 1943: the 1927 dollar
gained 0.6% in purchasing power over
these 16 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1943 at the same ratio, 0.99: $1,000 becomes
$994, and $10,000 becomes $9,943.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1943
$1.00
$0.99
$5.00
$4.97
$10.00
$9.94
$20.00
$19.89
$50.00
$49.71
$100
$99.43
$500
$497
$1,000
$994
$5,000
$4,971
$10,000
$9,943
$100,000
$99,425
$1,000,000
$994,253
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1943
Between 1927 and 1943, apparel rose the most, up 9.9%, while food rose the least, up 4.3%, against 0.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.04%
$99.43
Apparel
0.59%
$110
Food
0.26%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 to 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.46
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$99.43
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $78.74 by
1935, on its way to $99.43 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $99.43; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1943: $100 is worth $99.43 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1943/