$100 in 1999 is worth $138 in 2012,
because prices increased 37.8% over that period, an average of
2.50% a year.
$100 in 1999 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.8%
Average inflation rate
2.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.81
CPI in 1999
166.6
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1999 → 2012
$138
$100 in 2012 → 1999
$72.56
What happened to prices between 1999 and 2012
Between 1999 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 166.6 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.8%, which works out to an average of
2.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1999 bought what
$0.73 buys in 2012: the 1999 dollar
lost 27.4% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 2012 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,378, and $10,000 becomes $13,781.
Amount in 1999
Value in 2012
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.89
$10.00
$13.78
$20.00
$27.56
$50.00
$68.91
$100
$138
$500
$689
$1,000
$1,378
$5,000
$6,891
$10,000
$13,781
$100,000
$137,812
$1,000,000
$1,378,115
Inflation by spending category, 1999–2012
Between 1999 and 2012, energy rose the most, up 130.8%, while apparel fell 3.8%, against 37.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1999
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1999 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.50%
$138
Energy
6.65%
$231
Medical care
3.95%
$166
Transportation
3.20%
$151
Food
2.76%
$142
Housing
2.39%
$136
Education & communication
2.17%
$132
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.03%
$130
Recreation
0.91%
$112
Apparel
-0.30%
$96.17
Decade by decade: 1999 to 2012
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 1999–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1999
$100 from 1999 had already become $117 by
2005, on its way to $138 in 2012; 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 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1999 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1999 to 2012: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1999-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1999 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1999-to-2012/