"The only single year that's exceeded the 2002 figure in recent history was 1985," he said, "when you had 20,332 permits."

But the company's indebtedness continued to grow and soon exceeded the £135,000 figure.

Using Chinese burial records, he calculated that the number of dead exceeded the figure of 227,400.

This exceeds the starting figure of 72 recorded in the minutes of 1918.

For sales to exceed the 1990 figure, the roughly 1,000 card producers will have to sell more than 7.3 billion cards this year.

The companies could decide that the project is too expensive if cost estimates far exceed the initial figure of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion.

Not until 1980 did the population exceed the 1890 figure.

If the number of people that turns up exceeds the permitted figure, the organisers are liable to a fine.

But that figure is higher than for any full year since 1974, slightly exceeding the 1987 figure.

The common objective proposed in 2001 and updated today is not to exceed the figure of 25 000 deaths in 2010.