$100 in 2009 is worth $107 in 2012,
because prices increased 7.0% over that period, an average of
2.29% a year.
$100 in 2009 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.0%
Average inflation rate
2.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.02
CPI in 2009
214.537
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 2009 → 2012
$107
$100 in 2012 → 2009
$93.44
What happened to prices between 2009 and 2012
Between 2009 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 214.537 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.0%, which works out to an average of
2.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2009 bought what
$0.93 buys in 2012: the 2009 dollar
lost 6.6% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 2012 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,070, and $10,000 becomes $10,702.
Amount in 2009
Value in 2012
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.35
$10.00
$10.70
$20.00
$21.40
$50.00
$53.51
$100
$107
$500
$535
$1,000
$1,070
$5,000
$5,351
$10,000
$10,702
$100,000
$107,018
$1,000,000
$1,070,184
Inflation by spending category, 2009–2012
Between 2009 and 2012, energy rose the most, up 27.4%, while recreation rose the least, up 0.4%, against 7.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2009
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2009 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.29%
$107
Energy
8.41%
$127
Transportation
6.63%
$121
Medical care
3.37%
$110
Food
2.36%
$107
Apparel
1.69%
$105
Education & communication
1.66%
$105
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.57%
$105
Housing
0.86%
$103
Recreation
0.13%
$100
Decade by decade: 2009 to 2012
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 2.61% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.64% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2009–2012 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2009, at end
2009–2010
1.64%
1.6%
$102
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$107
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2009
$100 from 2009 had already become $102 by
2010, on its way to $107 in 2012; 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 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 2009 had the buying
power of $107; 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 2009 to 2012: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2009 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2012/