$100 in 1994 is worth $124 in 2003,
because prices increased 24.2% over that period, an average of
2.43% a year.
$100 in 1994 has
the same buying power as
$124
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
24.2%
Average inflation rate
2.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$124
Price difference ($100 base)
$24.16
CPI in 1994
148.2
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1994 → 2003
$124
$100 in 2003 → 1994
$80.54
What happened to prices between 1994 and 2003
Between 1994 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 148.2 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 24.2%, which works out to an average of
2.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1994 bought what
$0.81 buys in 2003: the 1994 dollar
lost 19.5% of its purchasing power over
these 9 years.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
Every 1994 amount converts to 2003 at the same ratio, 1.24: $1,000 becomes
$1,242, and $10,000 becomes $12,416.
Amount in 1994
Value in 2003
$1.00
$1.24
$5.00
$6.21
$10.00
$12.42
$20.00
$24.83
$50.00
$62.08
$100
$124
$500
$621
$1,000
$1,242
$5,000
$6,208
$10,000
$12,416
$100,000
$124,157
$1,000,000
$1,241,565
Inflation by spending category, 1994–2003
Between 1994 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 40.8%, while apparel fell 9.4%, against 24.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1994
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1994 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.43%
$124
Medical care
3.88%
$141
Energy
3.00%
$130
Housing
2.75%
$128
Food
2.49%
$125
Education & communication
2.39%
$124
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.37%
$123
Transportation
1.79%
$117
Recreation
1.66%
$116
Apparel
-1.09%
$90.63
Decade by decade: 1994 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.53% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1994–2003 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1994, at end
1994–2000
2.53%
16.2%
$116
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$124
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1994
$100 from 1994 had already become $110 by
1998, on its way to $124 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 1994 had the buying
power of $124; 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 1994 to 2003: $100 is worth $124 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1994-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1994 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1994-to-2003/