As a final complication, the beginning of the year also saw the Fed’s policy interest rate, the federal funds rate, at the historically low level of 1 percent, the result of the efforts of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to spark faster growth and minimize deflation risks in 2003.
The global economic downturn  BIS Review 132/2009  1  also adversely impacted our tourism and inward remittances, which have in the past, assisted to alleviate a good part of the trade deficit. The higher prices for oil and food saw inflation reach a twenty year high. The situation became very critical with our foreign exchange reserves plummeting very rapidly.