$100 in 1989 is worth $167 in 2007,
because prices increased 67.2% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
67.2%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$67.21
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1989 → 2007
$167
$100 in 2007 → 1989
$59.80
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2007
Between 1989 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 67.2%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.60 buys in 2007: the 1989 dollar
lost 40.2% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 2007 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,672, and $10,000 becomes $16,721.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2007
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.36
$10.00
$16.72
$20.00
$33.44
$50.00
$83.61
$100
$167
$500
$836
$1,000
$1,672
$5,000
$8,361
$10,000
$16,721
$100,000
$167,211
$1,000,000
$1,672,113
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2007
Between 1989 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 135.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 0.3%, against 67.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$167
Medical care
4.86%
$235
Energy
4.49%
$220
Housing
3.01%
$170
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.76%
$163
Food
2.72%
$162
Transportation
2.71%
$162
Apparel
0.02%
$100
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $131 by
1998, on its way to $167 in 2007; 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 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2007: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2007/