$100 in 1988 is worth $190 in 2011,
because prices increased 90.1% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1988 has
the same buying power as
$190
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
90.1%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$190
Price difference ($100 base)
$90.14
CPI in 1988
118.3
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1988 → 2011
$190
$100 in 2011 → 1988
$52.59
What happened to prices between 1988 and 2011
Between 1988 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 118.3 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 90.1%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1988 bought what
$0.53 buys in 2011: the 1988 dollar
lost 47.4% of its purchasing power over
these 23 years.
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.
Every 1988 amount converts to 2011 at the same ratio, 1.90: $1,000 becomes
$1,901, and $10,000 becomes $19,014.
Amount in 1988
Value in 2011
$1.00
$1.90
$5.00
$9.51
$10.00
$19.01
$20.00
$38.03
$50.00
$95.07
$100
$190
$500
$951
$1,000
$1,901
$5,000
$9,507
$10,000
$19,014
$100,000
$190,143
$1,000,000
$1,901,429
Inflation by spending category, 1988–2011
Between 1988 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 188.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 5.8%, against 90.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1988
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1988 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$190
Medical care
4.72%
$289
Energy
4.47%
$273
Transportation
2.95%
$195
Food
2.89%
$193
Housing
2.71%
$185
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.65%
$182
Apparel
0.25%
$106
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1988: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1988 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.11% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1988–2011 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1988, at end
1988–1990
5.11%
10.5%
$110
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$146
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$184
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$190
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1988
$100 from 1988 had already become $141 by
1999, on its way to $190 in 2011; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1988 had the buying
power of $190; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1988 to 2011: $100 is worth $190 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1988-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1988 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1988-to-2011/