Singapore's economic strategy produced real growth averaging 8.0% from 1960 to 1999. Since the nations independence in 1965 Singapore GDP has amassed an average of a 9.5% increase. The economy picked up in 1999 Under Goh Chok Tong, the Prime Minister of Singapore, after the regional financial crisis, with a growth rate of 5.4%, followed by 9.9% for 2000. However, the economic slowdown in the United States, Japan and the European Union, as well as the worldwide electronics slump, had reduced the estimated economic growth in 2001 to a negative 2.0%.