In the fifteen months following the Brussels financial conference the achievements and future prospects of reconstruction were patchy. Economic recovery was now overshadowed by world depression. The postwar boom had broken earlier in 1920, and the downward slide was sharp, aggravated even if not precipitated by strict deflationary policies in the United States and Britain. Between 1920 and 1921 world industrial production fell by 13 per cent: the fall was 20 per cent in the United States, 18.6 per cent in Britain, 11 per cent in France. In the United States wholesale prices fell on average by 3.4 per cent per month, production by 2.4 per cent: unemployment reached 12 per cent in 1921. In Britain, on average 2.4 per cent of trade-union members were unemployed in 1920, in 1921 14.8 per cent. At the bottom of the slump, in the summer of 1921, 2.4 million insured people in Britain were out of work, 22 per cent of the total insured population. By contrast in Germany industrial production continued to rise – by 20.4 per cent between 1920 and 1921, after a 46 per cent rise from 1919 to 1920. Domestic demand was buoyant, interest rates low, prices fairly stable. This was due to continued expansion of the money supply and the Reich floating debt. Public sector investment was increased as a work-creating measure: full employment took priority over currency stabilisation.