$100 in 1993 is worth $127 in 2003,
because prices increased 27.3% over that period, an average of
2.45% a year.
$100 in 1993 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
27.3%
Average inflation rate
2.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$27.34
CPI in 1993
144.5
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1993 → 2003
$127
$100 in 2003 → 1993
$78.53
What happened to prices between 1993 and 2003
Between 1993 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 144.5 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 27.3%, which works out to an average of
2.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1993 bought what
$0.79 buys in 2003: the 1993 dollar
lost 21.5% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
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.
Every 1993 amount converts to 2003 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,273, and $10,000 becomes $12,734.
Amount in 1993
Value in 2003
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.37
$10.00
$12.73
$20.00
$25.47
$50.00
$63.67
$100
$127
$500
$637
$1,000
$1,273
$5,000
$6,367
$10,000
$12,734
$100,000
$127,336
$1,000,000
$1,273,356
Inflation by spending category, 1993–2003
Between 1993 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 47.5%, while apparel fell 9.6%, against 27.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1993
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1993 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.45%
$127
Medical care
3.96%
$148
Energy
2.74%
$131
Housing
2.73%
$131
Education & communication
2.53%
$128
Food
2.48%
$128
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.41%
$127
Transportation
1.91%
$121
Recreation
1.71%
$119
Apparel
-1.00%
$90.43
Decade by decade: 1993 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.54% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1993–2003 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1993, at end
1993–2000
2.54%
19.2%
$119
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$127
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1993
$100 from 1993 had already become $113 by
1998, on its way to $127 in 2003; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.4% in 2000, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1993 had the buying
power of $127; 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 1993 to 2003: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1993 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2003/