$100 in 1989 is worth $113 in 1992,
because prices increased 13.1% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$113
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.1%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$113
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.15
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1989 → 1992
$113
$100 in 1992 → 1989
$88.38
What happened to prices between 1989 and 1992
Between 1989 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.1%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1992: the 1989 dollar
lost 11.6% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1992 at the same ratio, 1.13: $1,000 becomes
$1,131, and $10,000 becomes $11,315.
Amount in 1989
Value in 1992
$1.00
$1.13
$5.00
$5.66
$10.00
$11.31
$20.00
$22.63
$50.00
$56.57
$100
$113
$500
$566
$1,000
$1,131
$5,000
$5,657
$10,000
$11,315
$100,000
$113,145
$1,000,000
$1,131,452
Inflation by spending category, 1989–1992
Between 1989 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 27.3%, while energy rose the least, up 9.2%, against 13.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$113
Medical care
8.39%
$127
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.52%
$114
Housing
3.78%
$112
Apparel
3.61%
$111
Transportation
3.50%
$111
Food
3.30%
$110
Energy
2.99%
$109
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 1992
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–1992 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$113
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $105 by
1990, on its way to $113 in 1992; 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 3.0% in 1992.
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $113; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 1992: $100 is worth $113 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1992/