$100 in 1999 is worth $135 in 2011,
because prices increased 35.0% over that period, an average of
2.53% a year.
$100 in 1999 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.0%
Average inflation rate
2.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.02
CPI in 1999
166.6
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1999 → 2011
$135
$100 in 2011 → 1999
$74.06
What happened to prices between 1999 and 2011
Between 1999 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 166.6 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.0%, which works out to an average of
2.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1999 bought what
$0.74 buys in 2011: the 1999 dollar
lost 25.9% of its purchasing power over
these 12 years.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
Every 1999 amount converts to 2011 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,350, and $10,000 becomes $13,502.
Amount in 1999
Value in 2011
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.75
$10.00
$13.50
$20.00
$27.00
$50.00
$67.51
$100
$135
$500
$675
$1,000
$1,350
$5,000
$6,751
$10,000
$13,502
$100,000
$135,017
$1,000,000
$1,350,174
Inflation by spending category, 1999–2011
Between 1999 and 2011, energy rose the most, up 128.8%, while apparel fell 7.0%, against 35.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1999
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1999 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.53%
$135
Energy
7.14%
$229
Medical care
3.98%
$160
Transportation
3.27%
$147
Food
2.77%
$139
Housing
2.45%
$134
Education & communication
2.20%
$130
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.02%
$127
Recreation
0.88%
$111
Apparel
-0.60%
$93.00
Decade by decade: 1999 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 3.36% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1999–2011 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1999, at end
1999–2000
3.36%
3.4%
$103
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$131
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1999
$100 from 1999 had already become $117 by
2005, on its way to $135 in 2011; 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 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1999 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1999 to 2011: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1999-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1999 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1999-to-2011/