From 1988 to 1998, GDP growth averaged 2.4%. The Real Plan had to be abandoned in early 1999, however, as the Brazilian economy became engulfed in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the Russian financial crisis of 1998. Brazil lost an estimated $50 billion in foreign reserves in the resulting capital flight. Steps were taken by the Group of Seven and the international financial institutions to try to reassure foreign investors. On 2 December 1998, a two-and-three-quarter-year standby agreement with the IMF went into effect, buttressed by credit line of about $18.2. billion, as well as a one-year standby under the Supplementary Reserve Facility (SRF) with a $12.6-billion credit line, both part of an international support package totalling $41.5 billion. The support package had been designed as a precaution against Brazil catching the "Asian flu," as it were, but it did not prevent Brazilian currency crisis of 1999. On 13 January 1999 the Central Bank devalued the real by 8%; on 15 January 1999, the Cardoso government announced that the real would no longer be pegged to the US dollar, ending the Real Plan. Immediately, the real lost more than 30% of its value, and subsequent devaluation made the real lose a total of 45% of its value. Despite the devaluation; however, the economy showed positive, if weak, growth in both 1998 (0.2%) and 1999 (0.8%), and inflation remained under control, at 3.2% in 1998 and 4.9% in 1999. However, Brazil's debt service ratio soared to an untenable 113.1% of export earnings in 1999, up from 62.7% in 1997 and 76.2% in 1998. To some extent, the problem was self-correcting, as the devalued real made Brazilian exports more competitive, which increased export earnings in 2000, and helped reduce the debt service ratio to 90.8% by 2000 and to 78.5% by 2001. GDP grew 4.5% in 2000, led by exports, while inflation picked up to 7%. Growth then fell to 1.4% in 2001 as the US recession and the global slowdown dampened export demand.