$100 in 1989 is worth $117 in 1993,
because prices increased 16.5% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$117
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.5%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$117
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.53
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1989 → 1993
$117
$100 in 1993 → 1989
$85.81
What happened to prices between 1989 and 1993
Between 1989 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.5%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1993: the 1989 dollar
lost 14.2% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1993 at the same ratio, 1.17: $1,000 becomes
$1,165, and $10,000 becomes $11,653.
Amount in 1989
Value in 1993
$1.00
$1.17
$5.00
$5.83
$10.00
$11.65
$20.00
$23.31
$50.00
$58.27
$100
$117
$500
$583
$1,000
$1,165
$5,000
$5,827
$10,000
$11,653
$100,000
$116,532
$1,000,000
$1,165,323
Inflation by spending category, 1989–1993
Between 1989 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 34.9%, while energy rose the least, up 10.5%, against 16.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$117
Medical care
7.77%
$135
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.22%
$118
Housing
3.51%
$115
Transportation
3.39%
$114
Apparel
3.04%
$113
Food
3.02%
$113
Energy
2.53%
$110
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–1993 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $110 by
1991, on its way to $117 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 3.0% in 1993.
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $117; 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 1989 to 1993: $100 is worth $117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1993/