$100 in 1989 is worth $134 in 1999,
because prices increased 34.4% over that period, an average of
3.00% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
34.4%
Average inflation rate
3.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$34.35
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1989 → 1999
$134
$100 in 1999 → 1989
$74.43
What happened to prices between 1989 and 1999
Between 1989 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 34.4%, which works out to an average of
3.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1999: the 1989 dollar
lost 25.6% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1999 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,344, and $10,000 becomes $13,435.
Amount in 1989
Value in 1999
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.72
$10.00
$13.44
$20.00
$26.87
$50.00
$67.18
$100
$134
$500
$672
$1,000
$1,344
$5,000
$6,718
$10,000
$13,435
$100,000
$134,355
$1,000,000
$1,343,548
Inflation by spending category, 1989–1999
Between 1989 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 67.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 10.7%, against 34.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.00%
$134
Medical care
5.32%
$168
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.21%
$137
Housing
2.91%
$133
Food
2.75%
$131
Transportation
2.38%
$127
Energy
1.23%
$113
Apparel
1.02%
$111
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $120 by
1994, on its way to $134 in 1999; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 1999: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-1999/