$100 in 1989 is worth $110 in 1991,
because prices increased 9.8% over that period, an average of
4.80% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
9.8%
Average inflation rate
4.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$9.84
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1989 → 1991
$110
$100 in 1991 → 1989
$91.04
What happened to prices between 1989 and 1991
Between 1989 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 9.8%, which works out to an average of
4.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1991: the 1989 dollar
lost 9.0% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
Every 1989 amount converts to 1991 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,098, and $10,000 becomes $10,984.
Amount in 1989
Value in 1991
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.49
$10.00
$10.98
$20.00
$21.97
$50.00
$54.92
$100
$110
$500
$549
$1,000
$1,098
$5,000
$5,492
$10,000
$10,984
$100,000
$109,839
$1,000,000
$1,098,387
Inflation by spending category, 1989–1991
Between 1989 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 18.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 8.5%, against 9.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.80%
$110
Medical care
8.88%
$119
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.95%
$110
Food
4.38%
$109
Energy
4.26%
$109
Housing
4.22%
$109
Apparel
4.17%
$109
Transportation
4.16%
$109
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$110
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $105 by
1990, on its way to $110 in 1991; 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 4.2% in 1991.
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $110; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 1991: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1991/