Inflation in El Salvador
In the year to June 2026, consumer prices in El Salvador rose 2.8%, up from 2.5% a month earlier. Since January 2009 prices have risen 35.0%, which means $100 then buys what $134.95 buys now, so the same basket of goods costs 1.3 times what it did.
Cumulative & Yearly Inflation
Inflation in El Salvador by year
Inflation is the change in that year's average prices against the year before, which is the figure usually quoted. The last two columns take $100 in January of that year and show what it is worth in June 2026, the most recent month on record. Only years measured in full are listed, so the year now running appears once it ends.
| Year | Inflation | $100 is now | Cumulative inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1.2% | 133.89 | 33.9% |
| 2020 | -0.4% | 119.91 | 19.9% |
| 2024 | 0.9% | 103.64 | 3.6% |
| 2025 | 0.3% | 103.32 | 3.3% |
Every year from 2010 to 2025
| Year | Inflation | $100 is now | Cumulative inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1.2% | 133.89 | 33.9% |
| 2011 | 5.1% | 130.86 | 30.9% |
| 2012 | 1.7% | 124.92 | 24.9% |
| 2013 | 0.8% | 123.84 | 23.8% |
| 2014 | 1.1% | 122.80 | 22.8% |
| 2015 | -0.7% | 123.73 | 23.7% |
| 2016 | 0.6% | 121.52 | 21.5% |
| 2017 | 1.0% | 121.83 | 21.8% |
| 2018 | 1.1% | 120.12 | 20.1% |
| 2019 | 0.1% | 119.81 | 19.8% |
| 2020 | -0.4% | 119.91 | 19.9% |
| 2021 | 3.5% | 119.54 | 19.5% |
| 2022 | 7.2% | 112.27 | 12.3% |
| 2023 | 4.0% | 104.89 | 4.9% |
| 2024 | 0.9% | 103.64 | 3.6% |
| 2025 | 0.3% | 103.32 | 3.3% |
A short history of inflation in El Salvador
Dollarisation (2001)
El Salvador abandoned its own currency. The colon was replaced by the United States dollar on 1 January 2001, at a fixed rate, ending decades in which inflation had at times run into three figures during the civil war of the 1980s. The country gave up the ability to set interest rates or to devalue, and in exchange received the price stability of the currency it had already been using informally.
Salvadoran inflation has since been among the lowest in Central America and moves with American prices and with world food and fuel costs. The limitation is the one every dollarised economy accepts: when a shock hits, there is no monetary response available, and adjustment has to come through wages, prices and the budget.
Post-Covid Inflation (2021 to 2023)
In El Salvador, prices rose fastest in June 2022, at 7.8%. The causes of the post-Covid inflation were global in nature, beginning with the lockdowns: factories and ports closed and the shipping between them fell out of sequence, so goods took longer to make and longer to arrive. Governments had spent heavily supporting household incomes through those closures, so when restrictions lifted there was money waiting to be spent and not enough on the shelves to spend it on. Then in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting two of the world's largest suppliers of wheat, fertiliser, oil and gas at once, and the cost of everything grown, heated or transported rose with them.
Because the causes were shared, so was the timing: most countries peaked within a few months of one another in late 2022. The major inflation events covers this episode and the others in more detail.
Common questions about inflation in El Salvador
What is the current inflation rate in El Salvador?
Prices in El Salvador rose 2.8% in the year to June 2026. That is up from 2.5% a month earlier.
What would $100 in January 2009 be worth today?
$100.00 in January 2009 has the same buying power as $134.95 in June 2026, a rise of 35.0%.
What would $100 in January 2010 be worth today?
$100.00 in January 2010 has the same buying power as $133.89 in June 2026, a rise of 33.9%.
What would $100 in January 2020 be worth today?
$100.00 in January 2020 has the same buying power as $119.91 in June 2026, a rise of 19.9%.
How inflation in El Salvador is measured
The figures on this page come from the IMF's CPI dataset, with the original data from El Salvador's ONEC. The series is indexed so that a chosen base year equals 100, and the calculator works out the ratio between any two dates you pick.
The currency shown is the US dollar ($). Whether that brings American inflation with it is a separate question, and mostly it does not. Coverage runs from January 2009 to June 2026, and updates automatically as each new release is published. Figures for the most recent periods can be revised by the statistics office after first publication.
Use this data
Click the reference to select it.
Compare Inflation. “Inflation in El Salvador.” Figures for June 2026. https://compareinflation.com/inflation-in-el-salvador/
Download the full series (CSV) — 210 months, January 2009 to June 2026, with the annual rate for each.