Economic growth for 2008 stood at 5.0 per cent, slightly below the 2007 level of 5.5 per cent. At the beginning of this year, it appeared that our GDP growth rate would be closer to 2 per cent.
As the crisis began to be addressed effectively, we revised this forecast and our GDP growth rate is now expected to be around 2.7 per cent in 2009, despite our major export markets being in recession.