The economy benefited from high global energy prices in the early 2000s, with little inflation. It slowed in 2007 (with a growth rate of 0.2 per cent) and, in the strongly adverse climate of the world economic downturn, shrank in 2008 (–1.9 per cent) and 2009 (–1.8 per cent) before returning to steady growth in 2010–14, when energy prices were buoyant, before they declined sharply in 2014.