$100 in 1997 is worth $134 in 2009,
because prices increased 33.7% over that period, an average of
2.45% a year.
$100 in 1997 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.7%
Average inflation rate
2.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.67
CPI in 1997
160.5
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1997 → 2009
$134
$100 in 2009 → 1997
$74.81
What happened to prices between 1997 and 2009
Between 1997 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 160.5 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.7%, which works out to an average of
2.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1997 bought what
$0.75 buys in 2009: the 1997 dollar
lost 25.2% of its purchasing power over
these 12 years.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
Every 1997 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,337, and $10,000 becomes $13,367.
Amount in 1997
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.68
$10.00
$13.37
$20.00
$26.73
$50.00
$66.83
$100
$134
$500
$668
$1,000
$1,337
$5,000
$6,683
$10,000
$13,367
$100,000
$133,668
$1,000,000
$1,336,679
Inflation by spending category, 1997–2009
Between 1997 and 2009, energy rose the most, up 73.2%, while apparel fell 9.6%, against 33.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1997
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1997 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.45%
$134
Energy
4.68%
$173
Medical care
4.00%
$160
Food
2.76%
$139
Housing
2.75%
$138
Education & communication
2.18%
$129
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.17%
$129
Transportation
1.82%
$124
Recreation
1.15%
$115
Apparel
-0.84%
$90.35
Decade by decade: 1997 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 2000s, averaging 2.47% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.37% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1997–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1997, at end
1997–2000
2.37%
7.3%
$107
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1997
$100 from 1997 had already become $115 by
2003, on its way to $134 in 2009; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.8% in 2008, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1997 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1997 to 2009: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1997-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1997 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1997-to-2009/