Between the years 1965 and 1997 the Indonesian economy grew at an average annual rate of almost seven percent. This achievement enabled Indonesia to graduate from the ranks of 'low income countries' into that of the 'lower middle income countries'. However, the Asian Financial Crisis that erupted in the late 1990s caused a severe negative impact on the Indonesian economy, resulting in a decline in gross domestic product (GDP) of 13.6 percent in 1998 and limited growth of 0.3 percent in 1999. Between the years 2000 and 2004 a period of economic recovery took place with a combined average GDP growth of 4.6 percent annually. Hereafter GDP growth accelerated (with the exception of 2009 when, amid global financial turmoil and uncertainty, Indonesia's GDP growth fell to - a still admirable - 4.6 percent) and then peaked at 6.5 percent in 2011. However, after 2011 Indonesia's economic expansion started to slow rapidly.