Robust growth for Pakistan's economy.

Pakistan's fiscal year ends on June 30, 2005, and in late April 2005 the Website onlypunjab.com carried a report of an Asian Development Bank (ADB) review of the initial nine months of the year. The ADB predicted that by June 30, 2005, Pakistan's economy will have grown 7 percent.

Strong domestic demand was partly responsible for this growth, said the ADB. Consumer spending was also responsible for considerable pressure on growth in the rate of inflation, which has grown 9.1 percent during the first nine months of the fiscal year.

During the comparable period the previous year, inflation grew 3.7 percent.

Oil prices were partly to blame for the pressure on inflation.

Some sectors of the economy grew at spectacular rates. One of the most spectacular was telecommunications. Cell phone subscribers increased 76 percent to 8.8-million by February 2005. Wireless local loop also increased. There were 160,000 connections added in the first 8 months of fiscal year 2004-2005.