$100 in 1933 is worth $111 in 1937,
because prices increased 10.8% over that period, an average of
2.59% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$111
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.8%
Average inflation rate
2.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$111
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.77
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1933 → 1937
$111
$100 in 1937 → 1933
$90.28
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1937
Between 1933 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.8%, which works out to an average of
2.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.90 buys in 1937: the 1933 dollar
lost 9.7% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
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.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1937 at the same ratio, 1.11: $1,000 becomes
$1,108, and $10,000 becomes $11,077.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1937
$1.00
$1.11
$5.00
$5.54
$10.00
$11.08
$20.00
$22.15
$50.00
$55.38
$100
$111
$500
$554
$1,000
$1,108
$5,000
$5,538
$10,000
$11,077
$100,000
$110,769
$1,000,000
$1,107,692
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1937
Between 1933 and 1937, food rose the most, up 26.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 17.0%, against 10.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.59%
$111
Food
5.94%
$126
Apparel
4.01%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: 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 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $105 by
1935, on its way to $111 in 1937; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and the smallest rise was 1.5% in 1936.
In 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $111; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1933 to 1937: $100 is worth $111 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1937/