Second MDG Progress Report launched:

Country’s poverty rates declining

Nadira Gunatilleke

Second Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress Report says that Sri Lanka’s poverty rates are clearly declining and country has succeeded in mobilizing a large volume of bilateral assistance in difficult times, with continued assistance from non-traditional and some traditional development partners.

The report was launched yesterday during a ceremony held at Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo with the presence of Finance Deputy Minister Dr.Sarath Amunugama, UNDP Resident Representative Neil Buhne and many others.

According to the report the total annual foreign financing commitment reached US $ 2069 million in 2008, compared to US $ 899 million in 2002.

The amount of foreign financing annually committed to Sri Lanka by development partners since 2004 has exceeded one billion US $, in support of post-tsunami rehabilitation, reconstruction and as well as in support of new development initiatives of the Government under the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’.

In 2008, the most prominent bilateral aid was mobilized from Japan, Iran and India.

The Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) received by Sri Lanka as a percentage of GNI declined from five per cent in 1992 to three percent in 2005 as a result of becoming a lower middle income country. Aid per capita increased from US $ 24 to US $ 36 during the same period.

The debt service ratio as a percentage to the total export earnings from merchandise and services is showing a favourable trend for this particular reference period and the situation after the tsunami in 2004 is an exception, the report says.

During the period of 1991 - 2008, economic growth in Sri Lanka has ranged around four to seven percent.

Economic growth is an important prerequisite for poverty reduction, and the analysis conducted in the context of this second MDG Country Report clearly shows that poverty rates are declining, the report says.