$100 in 1991 is worth $106 in 1993,
because prices increased 6.1% over that period, an average of
3.00% a year.
$100 in 1991 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
6.1%
Average inflation rate
3.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$6.09
CPI in 1991
136.2
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1991 → 1993
$106
$100 in 1993 → 1991
$94.26
What happened to prices between 1991 and 1993
Between 1991 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 136.2 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 6.1%, which works out to an average of
3.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1991 bought what
$0.94 buys in 1993: the 1991 dollar
lost 5.7% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
Every 1991 amount converts to 1993 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,061, and $10,000 becomes $10,609.
Amount in 1991
Value in 1993
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.30
$10.00
$10.61
$20.00
$21.22
$50.00
$53.05
$100
$106
$500
$530
$1,000
$1,061
$5,000
$5,305
$10,000
$10,609
$100,000
$106,094
$1,000,000
$1,060,940
Inflation by spending category, 1991–1993
Between 1991 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 13.8%, while energy rose the least, up 1.7%, against 6.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1991
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1991 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.00%
$106
Medical care
6.67%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.49%
$107
Housing
2.80%
$106
Transportation
2.63%
$105
Apparel
1.92%
$104
Food
1.67%
$103
Energy
0.83%
$102
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1991: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1991
$100 from 1991 had already become $103 by
1992, on its way to $106 in 1993; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.0% in 1992, and the smallest rise was 3.0% in 1993.
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1991 had the buying
power of $106; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1991 to 1993: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1991-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1991 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1991-to-1993/