$100 in 1983 is worth $164 in 1998,
because prices increased 63.7% over that period, an average of
3.34% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$164
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
63.7%
Average inflation rate
3.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$164
Price difference ($100 base)
$63.65
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1983 → 1998
$164
$100 in 1998 → 1983
$61.10
What happened to prices between 1983 and 1998
Between 1983 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 63.7%, which works out to an average of
3.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1998: the 1983 dollar
lost 38.9% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1998 at the same ratio, 1.64: $1,000 becomes
$1,637, and $10,000 becomes $16,365.
Amount in 1983
Value in 1998
$1.00
$1.64
$5.00
$8.18
$10.00
$16.37
$20.00
$32.73
$50.00
$81.83
$100
$164
$500
$818
$1,000
$1,637
$5,000
$8,183
$10,000
$16,365
$100,000
$163,655
$1,000,000
$1,636,546
Inflation by spending category, 1983–1998
Between 1983 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 140.7%, while energy rose the least, up 3.0%, against 63.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.34%
$164
Medical care
6.03%
$241
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.77%
$174
Food
3.25%
$162
Housing
3.23%
$161
Transportation
2.39%
$143
Apparel
1.91%
$133
Energy
0.20%
$103
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–1998 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1983, at end
1983–1990
3.96%
31.2%
$131
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$164
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $131 by
1990, on its way to $164 in 1998; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.4% in 1990, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $164; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 1998: $100 is worth $164 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1998/