Dollars as if in some base year, used to adjust for the effects of inflation.
If something is said to be in constant dollars, it means that it has been controlled for inflation. In other words, if a graph shows spending on Food Stamps from 1980-2002, and says in constant 2002 dollars, it means that every value has been adjusted to reflect the amount it would be in the year 2002.
The value of money after adjusting for inflation. (House Fiscal Analysis Department)
Dollars of a base year used as a general measure of purchasing power.
The value or purchasing power of a dollar in a specified year carried forward or backward.
Dollar value adjusted to a specific base year to eliminate changes in prices due to inflation. Often referred to as "today's" or "inflation-adjusted" dollars. Growth rates in program costs expressed in constant dollars are referred to as "real growth" rates.
Dollars adjusted using a price index to eliminate inflationary factors. This adjustment facilitates direct comparison over time.
Refers to dollars of different years expressed in terms of their value (‘purchasing power') in a single year, called the base year. This type of adjustment is done to eliminate the impact of widespread price changes. Current dollars are converted to constant dollars using an index of price movements. The most widely used index for household or family incomes, provided that no specific uses of the income are identified, is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which reflects average spending patterns by consumers in Canada. To convert current dollars of any year to constant dollars, the current dollars are divided by the index of that year and multiplied by the index of the chosen base year (the numerator contains the index value of the year being moved to).
Also referred to as "real dollars", it refers to price data which have been adjusted to remove the effect of changes in the general level of prices (inflation).
Dollar amounts that have been adjusted by means of price and cost indexes to eliminate inflationary factors and allow direct comparison across years. (See also Current dollars.)
Budget term for dollar amounts adjusted for inflation, based on buying power in a base year. The BRDPI is used to determine constant dollars from current dollars.