growth since Ukraine's independence. The economy continued to grow thanks to a 50% growth in exports between 2000 and 2008 – mainly exports from the traditional industries of metals, metallurgy, engineering, chemicals, and food. Between 2001 and 2008, metals and chemicals prices boomed because of fast international economic growth, while the price of natural gas imported from Russia remained low. Monetization also helped to drive the economic boom Ukraine experienced between 2000 and 2008. Attracted in part by relatively high interest-rates, foreign cash was injected into Ukraine's economy and money supply grew rapidly: from 2001 to 2010 broad, money increased at an annual rate of 35%. In 2006 and 2007, credit growth averaged 73%. An effect of this was that Ukrainian assets began to look like a large economic bubble and high inflation started to damage Ukraine's export competitiveness. The ratio of credit to GDP grew extremely fast – from 7 to almost 80 percent over just several years. From 2000 to 2007, Ukraine's real growth averaged 7.4%. This growth was driven by domestic demand: orientation toward consumption, other structural change, and financial development. Domestic demand grew in constant prices by almost 15% annually. It was supported by expansionary—procyclical—fiscal policy. Ukraine benefited from very low labor costs, slightly lower tariffs, and high prices of its main export goods, but at the same time faced notably higher non-tariff barriers. Russia has not charged Ukraine below-world-market prices for natural gas since the end of 2008. This led to various Russia–Ukraine gas disputes. Ukraine suffered severely in the economic crisis of 2008. Because of it Ukraine experienced a drought in capital flows. The hryvnia, which had been pegged at a rate of 5:1 to the U.S. dollar, was devalued to 8:1, and was stabilized at that ratio until the beginning of 2014. In 2008, Ukraine's economy ranked 45th in the world according to 2008 GDP (nominal), with a total nominal GDP of US$188 billion, and nominal per-capita GDP of US$3,900. There was 3% unemployment at the end of 2008. Over the first 9 months of 2009, unemployment averaged 9.4%. The final official unemployment rates for 2009 and 2010 were 8.8% and 8.4%, although the CIA World Factbook notes a "large number of unregistered or underemployed workers". Ukraine's GDP fell by 15% in 2009. The Ukrainian economy recovered in the first quarter of 2010 due to the recovery of the world economy and increasing