$100 in 1989 is worth $148 in 2003,
because prices increased 48.4% over that period, an average of
2.86% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$148
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.4%
Average inflation rate
2.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$148
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.39
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1989 → 2003
$148
$100 in 2003 → 1989
$67.39
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2003
Between 1989 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.4%, which works out to an average of
2.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.67 buys in 2003: the 1989 dollar
lost 32.6% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 2003 at the same ratio, 1.48: $1,000 becomes
$1,484, and $10,000 becomes $14,839.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2003
$1.00
$1.48
$5.00
$7.42
$10.00
$14.84
$20.00
$29.68
$50.00
$74.19
$100
$148
$500
$742
$1,000
$1,484
$5,000
$7,419
$10,000
$14,839
$100,000
$148,387
$1,000,000
$1,483,871
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2003
Between 1989 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 99.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.9%, against 48.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.86%
$148
Medical care
5.04%
$199
Housing
2.95%
$150
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.93%
$150
Energy
2.68%
$145
Food
2.63%
$144
Transportation
2.33%
$138
Apparel
0.14%
$102
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $127 by
1996, on its way to $148 in 2003; 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 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $148; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2003: $100 is worth $148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2003/