31.   An austerity drive prompted by a deterioration in crude prices in the following years slowed down growth rates to less than five percent.

32.   Caretaker Prime Minister Malik Meraj Khalid Wednesday launched an austerity drive, abolishing VIP lounges at airports and imposing cuts in perks for government ministers and civil servants.

33.   Caretaker prime minister Malik Meraj Khalid has launched an austerity drive.

34.   During previous austerity drives it has closed embassies in Fiji, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Liberia, Malawi and Swaziland.

35.   Earlier, the government had to abort a sweeping austerity drive that would have led to job cuts and a wage freeze after powerful trade unions raised protests.

36.   Embattled Ecuador President Abdala Bucaram on Thursday sacked three cabinet members and rolled back an austerity drive in an effort to keep his grip on power.

37.   Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has completed his first month in office by launching a foreign debt repayment crusade and an austerity drive to curtail expenditure.

38.   Sharif has initiated an austerity drive to reduce expenditure through checks on perks and facilities to government fuctionaries.

39.   The delays in payments have fuelled discontent among broad sections of the population hit hard by the economic austerity drive.