$100 in 2009 is worth $105 in 2011,
because prices increased 4.8% over that period, an average of
2.40% a year.
$100 in 2009 has
the same buying power as
$105
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
4.8%
Average inflation rate
2.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$105
Price difference ($100 base)
$4.85
CPI in 2009
214.537
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 2009 → 2011
$105
$100 in 2011 → 2009
$95.38
What happened to prices between 2009 and 2011
Between 2009 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 214.537 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 4.8%, which works out to an average of
2.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2009 bought what
$0.95 buys in 2011: the 2009 dollar
lost 4.6% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
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.
Every 2009 amount converts to 2011 at the same ratio, 1.05: $1,000 becomes
$1,048, and $10,000 becomes $10,485.
Amount in 2009
Value in 2011
$1.00
$1.05
$5.00
$5.24
$10.00
$10.48
$20.00
$20.97
$50.00
$52.42
$100
$105
$500
$524
$1,000
$1,048
$5,000
$5,242
$10,000
$10,485
$100,000
$104,849
$1,000,000
$1,048,486
Inflation by spending category, 2009–2011
Between 2009 and 2011, energy rose the most, up 26.3%, while recreation fell 0.8%, against 4.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2009
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2009 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.40%
$105
Energy
12.38%
$126
Transportation
8.85%
$118
Medical care
3.23%
$107
Food
2.24%
$105
Education & communication
1.59%
$103
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.31%
$103
Apparel
0.84%
$102
Housing
0.47%
$101
Recreation
-0.40%
$99.20
Decade by decade: 2009 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 3.16% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.64% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2009–2011 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2009, at end
2009–2010
1.64%
1.6%
$102
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$105
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2009
$100 from 2009 had already become $102 by
2010, on its way to $105 in 2011; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.2% in 2011, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 2010.
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 2009 had the buying
power of $105; 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 2009 to 2011: $100 is worth $105 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2009 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2011/