$100 in 1984 is worth $114 in 1988,
because prices increased 13.9% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$114
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.9%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$114
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.86
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1984 → 1988
$114
$100 in 1988 → 1984
$87.83
What happened to prices between 1984 and 1988
Between 1984 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.9%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1988: the 1984 dollar
lost 12.2% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
Every 1984 amount converts to 1988 at the same ratio, 1.14: $1,000 becomes
$1,139, and $10,000 becomes $11,386.
Amount in 1984
Value in 1988
$1.00
$1.14
$5.00
$5.69
$10.00
$11.39
$20.00
$22.77
$50.00
$56.93
$100
$114
$500
$569
$1,000
$1,139
$5,000
$5,693
$10,000
$11,386
$100,000
$113,859
$1,000,000
$1,138,595
Inflation by spending category, 1984–1988
Between 1984 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 29.8%, while energy fell 11.5%, against 13.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$114
Medical care
6.73%
$130
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.22%
$118
Food
3.45%
$115
Housing
3.42%
$114
Apparel
3.11%
$113
Transportation
1.18%
$105
Energy
-3.01%
$88.50
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $105 by
1986, on its way to $114 in 1988; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.1% in 1988, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $114; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 1988: $100 is worth $114 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1988/