$100 in 1937 is worth $97.92 in 1938,
because prices declined 2.1% over that period, an average of
2.08% a year.
$100 in 1937 has
the same buying power as
$97.92
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-2.1%
Average inflation rate
-2.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$97.92
Price difference ($100 base)
-$2.08
CPI in 1937
14.4
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1937 → 1938
$97.92
$100 in 1938 → 1937
$102
What happened to prices between 1937 and 1938
Between 1937 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.4 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices declined 2.1%, which works out to an average of
-2.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1937 bought what
$1.02 buys in 1938: the 1937 dollar
gained 2.1% in purchasing power over
these 1 years.
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.
Every 1937 amount converts to 1938 at the same ratio, 0.98: $1,000 becomes
$979, and $10,000 becomes $9,792.
Amount in 1937
Value in 1938
$1.00
$0.98
$5.00
$4.90
$10.00
$9.79
$20.00
$19.58
$50.00
$48.96
$100
$97.92
$500
$490
$1,000
$979
$5,000
$4,896
$10,000
$9,792
$100,000
$97,917
$1,000,000
$979,167
Inflation by spending category, 1937–1938
Between 1937 and 1938, transportation rose the most, up 0.7%, while food fell 7.6%, against 2.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1937
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1937 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.08%
$97.92
Transportation
0.69%
$101
Medical care
0.00%
$100
Apparel
-0.45%
$99.55
Food
-7.63%
$92.37
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1937: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1937
$100 from 1937shrank to $97.92 by 1938; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1937 had the buying
power of $97.92; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1937 to 1938: $100 is worth $97.92 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1937 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1937-to-1938/