$100 in 1989 is worth $143 in 2001,
because prices increased 42.8% over that period, an average of
3.01% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$143
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
42.8%
Average inflation rate
3.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$143
Price difference ($100 base)
$42.82
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1989 → 2001
$143
$100 in 2001 → 1989
$70.02
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2001
Between 1989 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 42.8%, which works out to an average of
3.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.70 buys in 2001: the 1989 dollar
lost 30.0% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 2001 at the same ratio, 1.43: $1,000 becomes
$1,428, and $10,000 becomes $14,282.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2001
$1.00
$1.43
$5.00
$7.14
$10.00
$14.28
$20.00
$28.56
$50.00
$71.41
$100
$143
$500
$714
$1,000
$1,428
$5,000
$7,141
$10,000
$14,282
$100,000
$142,823
$1,000,000
$1,428,226
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2001
Between 1989 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 82.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.3%, against 42.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.01%
$143
Medical care
5.15%
$183
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.10%
$144
Housing
3.05%
$143
Food
2.74%
$138
Energy
2.67%
$137
Transportation
2.55%
$135
Apparel
0.59%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2001
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2001 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$139
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$143
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $123 by
1995, on its way to $143 in 2001; 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 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $143; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2001: $100 is worth $143 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2001/