Inflation Rate in 2008

What happened to inflation in 2008

Food and energy prices spiked to a mid-year high before the financial crisis collapsed demand and sent inflation tumbling.

In 2008, inflation ran at 3.84%, up from 2.85% in 2007. That made it the 23rd-highest of the 65 years on record, and above the long-run average of 3.76%. For comparison, inflation sits at about 2.95% today.

What 2008's money is worth today

A rate is abstract until it's a price tag. Using the Consumer Price Index, here's what a given sum of 2008 dollars would have to grow to in order to buy the same goods today — the cumulative effect of every year of inflation in between:

Cumulative inflation since 2008 comes to about 46% — prices have risen roughly 1.5× over that span. Put another way, $100 today had the buying power of about $69 in 2008. To run your own figure across any two years, use the inflation calculator.

How 2008 compared

Across the full 1960–2024 record, inflation has averaged about 3.76%, so 2008 ran above that long-run norm. Within the 2000s, inflation averaged roughly 2.57%, and 2008 sat above its own decade. Five years earlier, in 2003, the rate was 2.27%. The following year, 2009, inflation eased to -0.36%.

Inflation shapes borrowing costs: when prices run hot, lenders demand higher rates to compensate. See what mortgage rates did in 2008 for the other side of the same story.

This is one year out of the whole story. For the complete history — every year since 1960, the all-time high and the deflation low, the decade-by-decade view, and what drives inflation over time — see historical inflation rates, 1960–today.