$100 in 2007 is worth $103 in 2009,
because prices increased 3.5% over that period, an average of
1.72% a year.
$100 in 2007 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
3.5%
Average inflation rate
1.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$3.47
CPI in 2007
207.342
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 2007 → 2009
$103
$100 in 2009 → 2007
$96.65
What happened to prices between 2007 and 2009
Between 2007 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 207.342 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 3.5%, which works out to an average of
1.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2007 bought what
$0.97 buys in 2009: the 2007 dollar
lost 3.4% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
Every 2007 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,035, and $10,000 becomes $10,347.
Amount in 2007
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.17
$10.00
$10.35
$20.00
$20.69
$50.00
$51.74
$100
$103
$500
$517
$1,000
$1,035
$5,000
$5,174
$10,000
$10,347
$100,000
$103,470
$1,000,000
$1,034,701
Inflation by spending category, 2007–2009
Between 2007 and 2009, food rose the most, up 7.4%, while energy fell 7.0%, against 3.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2007
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2007 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.72%
$103
Food
3.64%
$107
Medical care
3.44%
$107
Education & communication
3.22%
$107
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.00%
$104
Housing
1.77%
$104
Recreation
1.26%
$103
Apparel
0.45%
$101
Transportation
-1.48%
$97.06
Energy
-3.58%
$92.97
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2007
$100 from 2007 had already become $104 by
2008, on its way to $103 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 2007 had the buying
power of $103; 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 2007 to 2009: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2007-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2007 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2007-to-2009/