After a sharp check in 1967, when the slowdown of the West German and American economies contributed towards reducing the rate of growth of world trade to about 5 per cent, the rate rose to over 11 per cent in 1968. Not since 1951, when the U.S. gross national product grew by an exceptional 15 per cent as a result of the Korean war, did imports into the United States advance so rapidly. In the United Kingdom, the demand for imported goods showed little sign of satiety in spite of devaluation, high interest rates and successive restrictive measures.