Economic growth will remain rapid, at an annual average rate of 7.8% in 2011-12. High global prices for minerals have created strong foreign interest in Laos's extractive sector, and the leading mining companies operating in the country are looking to maximise their profits by increasing production. Such is the level of interest in the mining sector that parliament has put pressure on the government to slow the rate at which it is approving new concessions, as the legislature lacks the capacity to monitor them all properly. The construction of the Laos-China railway should boost economic growth, but such is the extensive use of Chinese engineers and workers on the project that Laos will benefit only from efficiency gains in the long term, when the time taken to transport goods is reduced. After slowing in 2010 owing to drought, agricultural output growth should accelerate in the next two years (weather conditions permitting), owing to improvements in productivity as large areas of farmland are leased to foreign investors. The outlook for services is partly dependent on the health of other economies in the region, given that the majority of tourists come from South-east Asia. A continued decline in the price of copper (not our central forecast) would have a negative effect on Laos's export growth, but development of the hydropower sector will improve the diversity of the export sector.