December 2000: The Legacy of 2000

What a year it was expected to be! By the start of 2000, interest rate fears plunged stocks on Wall Street. Companies all over the world spent billions of dollars to crush the millennium bug. Then, January 1 came and nothing happened! Year 2000 ends with a legacy of escalating oil prices, plunging world equity markets, the start of a US and PR economic slowdown, a reduction in local public investment, cost overruns in major infrastructure projects, spiraling costs of the Health Reform Plan, huge public debt, spiraling inflation, and fewer jobs. While, on balance, the PR economy posted positive growth of 3.1%, this trend is not expected in 2001. The results of the recent elections on the Island pose new policy and economic challenges. Find out how Puerto Rico`s top economic events shaped the economy in 2000.