$100 in 1933 is worth $133 in 1943,
because prices increased 33.1% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.1%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.08
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1933 → 1943
$133
$100 in 1943 → 1933
$75.14
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1943
Between 1933 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.1%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1943: the 1933 dollar
lost 24.9% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1943 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,331, and $10,000 becomes $13,308.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.65
$10.00
$13.31
$20.00
$26.62
$50.00
$66.54
$100
$133
$500
$665
$1,000
$1,331
$5,000
$6,654
$10,000
$13,308
$100,000
$133,077
$1,000,000
$1,330,769
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1943
Between 1933 and 1943, food rose the most, up 64.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 47.9%, against 33.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$133
Food
5.10%
$164
Apparel
3.99%
$148
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–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$133
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $108 by
1938, on its way to $133 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $133; 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 1933 to 1943: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1943/