$100 in 1984 is worth $139 in 1993,
because prices increased 39.1% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.1%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.08
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1984 → 1993
$139
$100 in 1993 → 1984
$71.90
What happened to prices between 1984 and 1993
Between 1984 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.1%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1993: the 1984 dollar
lost 28.1% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1993 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,391, and $10,000 becomes $13,908.
Amount in 1984
Value in 1993
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.95
$10.00
$13.91
$20.00
$27.82
$50.00
$69.54
$100
$139
$500
$695
$1,000
$1,391
$5,000
$6,954
$10,000
$13,908
$100,000
$139,076
$1,000,000
$1,390,760
Inflation by spending category, 1984–1993
Between 1984 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 88.6%, while energy rose the least, up 3.3%, against 39.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$139
Medical care
7.30%
$189
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.26%
$146
Food
3.52%
$137
Housing
3.50%
$136
Apparel
3.04%
$131
Transportation
2.58%
$126
Energy
0.36%
$103
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–1993 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1984, at end
1984–1990
3.90%
25.8%
$126
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $114 by
1988, on its way to $139 in 1993; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 1993: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1993/