$100 in 1998 is worth $132 in 2009,
because prices increased 31.6% over that period, an average of
2.53% a year.
$100 in 1998 has
the same buying power as
$132
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
31.6%
Average inflation rate
2.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$132
Price difference ($100 base)
$31.62
CPI in 1998
163
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1998 → 2009
$132
$100 in 2009 → 1998
$75.98
What happened to prices between 1998 and 2009
Between 1998 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 163 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 31.6%, which works out to an average of
2.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1998 bought what
$0.76 buys in 2009: the 1998 dollar
lost 24.0% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
Every 1998 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.32: $1,000 becomes
$1,316, and $10,000 becomes $13,162.
Amount in 1998
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.32
$5.00
$6.58
$10.00
$13.16
$20.00
$26.32
$50.00
$65.81
$100
$132
$500
$658
$1,000
$1,316
$5,000
$6,581
$10,000
$13,162
$100,000
$131,618
$1,000,000
$1,316,178
Inflation by spending category, 1998–2009
Between 1998 and 2009, energy rose the most, up 87.7%, while apparel fell 9.7%, against 31.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1998
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1998 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.53%
$132
Energy
5.89%
$188
Medical care
4.07%
$155
Food
2.81%
$136
Housing
2.79%
$135
Education & communication
2.20%
$127
Transportation
2.17%
$127
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.16%
$126
Recreation
1.12%
$113
Apparel
-0.92%
$90.28
Decade by decade: 1998 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.78% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1998–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1998, at end
1998–2000
2.78%
5.6%
$106
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$132
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1998
$100 from 1998 had already become $113 by
2003, on its way to $132 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 1998 had the buying
power of $132; 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 1998 to 2009: $100 is worth $132 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1998-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1998 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1998-to-2009/