Buying power of $120 in 2020

This chart shows a calculation of buying power equivalence for $120 in 2020 (price index tracking began in 1922).

For example, if you started with $120, you would need to end with $104.05 in order to "adjust" for inflation (sometimes refered to as "beating inflation").

When $120 is equivalent to $104.05 over time, that means that the "real value" of a single Australian 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 2020 dollars, the chart below shows how $120 is worth less over 3 years.

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

This conversion table shows various other 2020 amounts in 2023 dollars, based on the -13.29% change in prices:

How to calculate inflation rate for $120, 2020 to 2023

Our calculations use the following inflation rate formula to calculate the change in value between 2020 and 2023:

Then plug in historical CPI values. The Australian CPI was 133.9 in the year 2023 and 116.1 in 2020:

$120 in 2023 has the same "purchasing power" or "buying power" as $104.05 in 2020.

To get the total inflation rate for the 3 years between 2020 and 2023, 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 Australia's annual (CPI) as provided by the Reserve Bank of Australia. The consumer price index was established in 1922 and is tracked by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

» Read more about inflation and investment.