As a comparison, the rise in the debt ratio of the G7 from 2000 to 2005 associated with the previous cyclical downturn – which was not an especially deep one – was around 12 percentage points. Nonetheless the recent downturn was a bad one in many countries, and that is because it was associated with a financial crisis.
These challenges include managing a highly complex project involving multiple interfaces with others, ensuring the readiness of vendor components, ensuring the readiness of applications, thorough testing, and establishing contingency plans. We are also faced with labor market pressures that call for creative measures to retain staff who are critical to the success of our Year 2000 activities.