$100 in 1989 is worth $163 in 2006,
because prices increased 62.6% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
62.6%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$62.58
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1989 → 2006
$163
$100 in 2006 → 1989
$61.51
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2006
Between 1989 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 62.6%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.62 buys in 2006: the 1989 dollar
lost 38.5% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 2006 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,626, and $10,000 becomes $16,258.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2006
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.13
$10.00
$16.26
$20.00
$32.52
$50.00
$81.29
$100
$163
$500
$813
$1,000
$1,626
$5,000
$8,129
$10,000
$16,258
$100,000
$162,581
$1,000,000
$1,625,806
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2006
Between 1989 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 125.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 0.8%, against 62.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$163
Medical care
4.89%
$225
Energy
4.43%
$209
Housing
3.00%
$165
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.79%
$160
Transportation
2.75%
$159
Food
2.65%
$156
Apparel
0.04%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $129 by
1997, on its way to $163 in 2006; 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 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2006: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2006/