$2.98 in 1960 is worth $1.53 in 1940

Buying power of $2.98 in 1940

This chart shows a calculation of buying power equivalence for $2.98 in 1940 (price index tracking began in 1914).

For example, if you started with $2.98, you would need to end with $1.53 in order to "adjust" for inflation (sometimes refered to as "beating inflation").

When $2.98 is equivalent to $1.53 over time, that means that the "real value" of a single Canadian dollar decreases over time. In other words, a dollar will pay for fewer items at the store.

This effect explains how inflation erodes the value of a dollar over time. By calculating the value in 1940 dollars, the chart below shows how $2.98 is worth less over 20 years.

According to Statistics Canada, each of these CAD amounts below is equal in terms of what it could buy at the time:

This conversion table shows various other 1940 amounts in 1960 dollars, based on the -48.69% change in prices:

How to calculate inflation rate for $2.98, 1940 to 1960

Our calculations use the following inflation rate formula to calculate the change in value between 1940 and 1960:

Then plug in historical CPI values. The Canadian CPI was 15.54166667 in the year 1960 and 7.975 in 1940:

$2.98 in 1960 has the same "purchasing power" or "buying power" as $1.53 in 1940.

To get the total inflation rate for the 20 years between 1940 and 1960, we use the following formula:

Plugging in the values to this equation, we get:

Data source & citation

Raw data for these calculations comes from the government of Canada's annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), established in 1914 and computed by Statistics Canada (StatCan).

» Read more about inflation and investment.