$100 in 2006 is worth $106 in 2009,
because prices increased 6.4% over that period, an average of
2.09% a year.
$100 in 2006 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
6.4%
Average inflation rate
2.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$6.42
CPI in 2006
201.6
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 2006 → 2009
$106
$100 in 2009 → 2006
$93.97
What happened to prices between 2006 and 2009
Between 2006 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 201.6 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 6.4%, which works out to an average of
2.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2006 bought what
$0.94 buys in 2009: the 2006 dollar
lost 6.0% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
Every 2006 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,064, and $10,000 becomes $10,642.
Amount in 2006
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.32
$10.00
$10.64
$20.00
$21.28
$50.00
$53.21
$100
$106
$500
$532
$1,000
$1,064
$5,000
$5,321
$10,000
$10,642
$100,000
$106,417
$1,000,000
$1,064,172
Inflation by spending category, 2006–2009
Between 2006 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 11.7%, while energy fell 1.9%, against 6.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2006
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2006 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.09%
$106
Medical care
3.76%
$112
Food
3.74%
$112
Education & communication
2.94%
$109
Housing
2.22%
$107
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.11%
$106
Recreation
1.00%
$103
Apparel
0.16%
$100
Transportation
-0.30%
$99.09
Energy
-0.64%
$98.08
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2006
$100 from 2006 had already become $103 by
2007, on its way to $106 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 2006 had the buying
power of $106; 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 2006 to 2009: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2006-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2006 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2006-to-2009/