After a short recovery phase, the SPI started to erode continuously from May 2001. The &lt;a href="September%2011%20attacks"&gt;9/11 attacks&lt;/a&gt; accelerated this evolution, started with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, further. The SPI reached its bottom of 2,603 points one and a half years later, on 12 March 2003, at the peak of the SARS-epidemic and the Iraq war.