$100 in 1934 is worth $107 in 1937,
because prices increased 7.5% over that period, an average of
2.43% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.5%
Average inflation rate
2.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.46
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1934 → 1937
$107
$100 in 1937 → 1934
$93.06
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1937
Between 1934 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.5%, which works out to an average of
2.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1937: the 1934 dollar
lost 6.9% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1937 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,075, and $10,000 becomes $10,746.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1937
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.37
$10.00
$10.75
$20.00
$21.49
$50.00
$53.73
$100
$107
$500
$537
$1,000
$1,075
$5,000
$5,373
$10,000
$10,746
$100,000
$107,463
$1,000,000
$1,074,627
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1937
Between 1934 and 1937, food rose the most, up 12.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 6.8%, against 7.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.43%
$107
Food
4.14%
$113
Apparel
2.22%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: 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 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $102 by
1935, on its way to $107 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 1934 had the buying
power of $107; 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 1934 to 1937: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1937/