$100 in 1983 is worth $110 in 1986,
because prices increased 10.0% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.0%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.04
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1983 → 1986
$110
$100 in 1986 → 1983
$90.88
What happened to prices between 1983 and 1986
Between 1983 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.0%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1986: the 1983 dollar
lost 9.1% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
Every 1983 amount converts to 1986 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,100, and $10,000 becomes $11,004.
Amount in 1983
Value in 1986
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.50
$10.00
$11.00
$20.00
$22.01
$50.00
$55.02
$100
$110
$500
$550
$1,000
$1,100
$5,000
$5,502
$10,000
$11,004
$100,000
$110,040
$1,000,000
$1,100,402
Inflation by spending category, 1983–1986
Between 1983 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 21.3%, while energy fell 11.7%, against 10.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$110
Medical care
6.64%
$121
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.45%
$114
Housing
3.68%
$111
Food
3.12%
$110
Apparel
1.86%
$106
Transportation
1.00%
$103
Energy
-4.07%
$88.29
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $104 by
1984, on its way to $110 in 1986; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.3% in 1984, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $110; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 1986: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1986/