and Maldives formed a multilateral cooperation forum, known as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in 1985. These economies aimed at progress towards regional integration. Later in 2007, Afghanistan also became a member of the organization. Recent economic progress of South Asian countries has been impressive. As per Asian Development Bank (ADB, 2011), macroeconomic fundamentals of the region have been strong as it has continued to experience an economic growth of more than 6 percent per year during the period 2008-10. The report had also forecasted the level of economic growth at more than 7 percent during 2011-12. Except for Nepal and Pakistan, which experienced a modest growth, individually, all the SAARC countries, including the underdeveloped economies like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Maldives have shown similar level of economic progress during 2010 with more than 6 percent rate of growth (Table 1). South Asia is thus deemed to be the second best performing region after East Asia. Table 1: Economic Growth (% change per year) Countries
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