But since October, the approval rate has fallen to 18 percent.

In 2004, the approval rate dropped to 67 percent of 71 proposals.

But the agency had rejected 976 applications, for an approval rate of 46 percent.

But following several large disasters over the last decade, approval rates were significantly higher.

That is the lowest approval rate in at least a decade.

Nationally, the average approval rate is 41 percent, he said.

As was the case in most communist countries, approval rates of 90% or more were routine.

He said the board's high approval rate could be attributed to several factors.

That approval rate was lower than last year, when 92 percent of the budgets passed on the first vote.

The actual approval rate will end up several percentage points lower, he said.