$100 in 1989 is worth $123 in 1995,
because prices increased 22.9% over that period, an average of
3.50% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$123
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
22.9%
Average inflation rate
3.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$123
Price difference ($100 base)
$22.90
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1989 → 1995
$123
$100 in 1995 → 1989
$81.36
What happened to prices between 1989 and 1995
Between 1989 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 22.9%, which works out to an average of
3.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.81 buys in 1995: the 1989 dollar
lost 18.6% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1995 at the same ratio, 1.23: $1,000 becomes
$1,229, and $10,000 becomes $12,290.
Amount in 1989
Value in 1995
$1.00
$1.23
$5.00
$6.15
$10.00
$12.29
$20.00
$24.58
$50.00
$61.45
$100
$123
$500
$615
$1,000
$1,229
$5,000
$6,145
$10,000
$12,290
$100,000
$122,903
$1,000,000
$1,229,032
Inflation by spending category, 1989–1995
Between 1989 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 47.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.3%, against 22.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.50%
$123
Medical care
6.71%
$148
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.78%
$125
Transportation
3.36%
$122
Housing
3.19%
$121
Food
2.89%
$119
Energy
1.84%
$112
Apparel
1.80%
$111
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–1995 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$123
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $113 by
1992, on its way to $123 in 1995; 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 2.6% in 1994.
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $123; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 1995: $100 is worth $123 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1995/