$100 in 1989 is worth $129 in 1997,
because prices increased 29.4% over that period, an average of
3.28% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$129
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
29.4%
Average inflation rate
3.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$129
Price difference ($100 base)
$29.44
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1989 → 1997
$129
$100 in 1997 → 1989
$77.26
What happened to prices between 1989 and 1997
Between 1989 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 29.4%, which works out to an average of
3.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1997: the 1989 dollar
lost 22.7% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1997 at the same ratio, 1.29: $1,000 becomes
$1,294, and $10,000 becomes $12,944.
Amount in 1989
Value in 1997
$1.00
$1.29
$5.00
$6.47
$10.00
$12.94
$20.00
$25.89
$50.00
$64.72
$100
$129
$500
$647
$1,000
$1,294
$5,000
$6,472
$10,000
$12,944
$100,000
$129,435
$1,000,000
$1,294,355
Inflation by spending category, 1989–1997
Between 1989 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 57.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.1%, against 29.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.28%
$129
Medical care
5.81%
$157
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.47%
$131
Housing
3.08%
$127
Transportation
2.98%
$126
Food
2.90%
$126
Energy
2.12%
$118
Apparel
1.43%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–1997 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $117 by
1993, on its way to $129 in 1997; 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 2.3% in 1997.
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $129; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 1997: $100 is worth $129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1997/