August 19, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 20, 1424

KABUL, Aug 18: Afghanistan’s economy grew by more than 30 per cent last year, presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said on Monday following a cabinet meeting.

The World Bank had tentatively estimated last year’s growth at 10 per cent, although it cited a lack of data.

“But some new estimates that have emerged, including those from our own sources from the ministry of finance and from the (central) Afghanistan Bank and others say that is probably an underestimation,” Ludin said.

“The growth rate in Afghanistan is probably over 30 per cent,” he said, describing it as “very positive.”

“This is not so much due to... the aid money which is coming in to Afghanistan, this depends to a large extent on the economic mobility, economic creativity that is taking place within Afghanistan,” he said.

“The return of refugees, the end of the drought and the beginning of the harvest in Afghanistan and basically the general economic activity that we see in the country account for this growth rate, this very positive growth rate.”

Ludin said reconstruction work was picking up with some major national projects now coming to fruition.

The Asian Development Bank in April forecast this year’s growth rate at well above 10 per cent.

The bank said strong growth would be supported by new investment and an influx of skills and entrepreneurship as large numbers of Afghans return to their country.

Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani in June said Afghanistan needed growth of 12-14 per cent for five years to escape poverty and deprivation.

Ghani said the war-ravaged country also needed $30 billion in aid and investment over the next five years.

Afghanistan’s 2002 gross domestic product (GDP) was an estimated $4.4 billion, according to an Asian Development Bank report, with per capita GDP just $170.—AFP