What this calculator does
Inflation is the steady rise in prices over time: the same quetzales buy a little less every year. Guatemala tracks it through its Consumer Price Index (CPI), which follows the cost of a representative basket of goods and services.
This tool is built on the real CPI series for Guatemala published by the World Bank (indicator FP.CPI.TOTL, base 2010 = 100). The series is unusually complete: it runs from 1960 through 2025 with no gaps, so you can compare any two years across more than six decades. Everything runs in your browser — the data is embedded in the page and nothing is sent to a server.
Enter an amount in quetzales, pick a start year and an end year (2025, the latest available, is preselected), and you get three answers at once:
- the equivalent amount in end-year quetzales,
- the cumulative inflation between the two years,
- the annualized rate, i.e. the constant yearly inflation that would produce the same total change.
The math behind it
The core is a simple ratio of index values: equivalent = amount × CPI of the end year ÷ CPI of the start year. Cumulative inflation is that same ratio minus one, expressed as a percentage, and the annualized rate is the geometric average — the ratio raised to the power of one over the number of years, minus one.
Recent year-over-year inflation in Guatemala
Computed from the same World Bank series the calculator uses:
| Year | Inflation |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 4.45% |
| 2017 | 4.43% |
| 2018 | 3.75% |
| 2019 | 3.70% |
| 2020 | 3.22% |
| 2021 | 4.26% |
| 2022 | 6.89% |
| 2023 | 6.20% |
| 2024 | 2.87% |
| 2025 | 1.49% |
The 2022-2023 spike mirrors the global post-pandemic and fuel-price shock, followed by a sharp cool-down in 2024-2025. By regional standards Guatemala is a low-inflation country: since 2010 prices have grown at roughly 4% per year on average.
Worked example
What is Q1,000 from 2010 worth in 2025?
- CPI 2010 = 100 and CPI 2025 = 182.28.
- Equivalent = 1,000 × 182.28 ÷ 100 = Q1,822.80.
- Cumulative inflation = (182.28 ÷ 100 − 1) × 100 = 82.28%.
- Annualized over 15 years = (1.8228 to the power of 1/15 − 1) × 100 = 4.08% per year.
In other words, what cost Q1,000 in 2010 costs about Q1,823 today — and Q1,000 of today buys roughly what Q549 bought back in 2010.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the data come from?
From the World Bank’s FP.CPI.TOTL indicator (consumer price index, base 2010 = 100), which compiles the official figures produced by Guatemala’s National Statistics Institute (INE). The series used here spans 1960-2025 and was retrieved in July 2026.
How often is it updated?
The World Bank releases the annual figure once a year, usually in the first half of the following year. We refresh the tool when a new year appears; the latest available year is currently 2025.
Why might the result differ from INE or Banco de Guatemala figures?
Local sources usually quote December-to-December inflation from the monthly CPI (rebased to December 2023 = 100), while the World Bank uses the annual average of the index. Both are correct; they just answer slightly different questions. Annual averages are the standard for comparing purchasing power across years.
Does it work for US dollars?
Not directly. This series measures prices in quetzales inside Guatemala. For dollar amounts you would need the US CPI, and any cross-currency comparison also requires the exchange rate of each year.
Can I pick an end year earlier than the start year?
Yes. The tool then runs the calculation in reverse and tells you how many quetzales of that earlier year match your amount; cumulative inflation shows as negative because you are unwinding the price increases.