World Bank worried over meeting MDG

DESPITE the economic recovery, the world’s top two multilateral lenders said that achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for developing countries remains “worrisome.”

“Although growth in emerging and developing countries is currently accelerating, should growth slow or deteriorate, progress toward the MDGs will suffer even more,” the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) report titled, “Global Monitoring Report 2010: The MDGs  after the Crisis,” said.

Spurred by recent strong performance in emerging economies and the recovery of global trade, gross domestic product (GDP) growth in developing countries is projected to accelerate to 6.3 percent in 2010, up from 2.4 percent in 2009, according to new IMF projections contained in the report.

Global output is projected to increase by 4.2 percent this year, reversing a decline of 0.6 percent in 2009. But the recovery is still fragile, with implications for the MDGs.

The report said the impact of the crisis on poverty will be long lasting.

The crisis left an estimated 50 million more people in extreme poverty in 2009, and some 64 million more will fall into that category by the end of 2010 relative to the pre-crisis trend.

By 2015 the global poverty rate is projected to hit 15 percent, not the 14.1 percent it would have been without the crisis, the report said.

“The impact of the current crisis is still worrisome,” the World Bank said, adding that the prospects are worst for most MDGs relating to health, such as infant mortality.

“Many countries are likely to fall short of most of the goals,” the report said.

Murilo Portugal, IMF deputy managing director said the financial crisis was a severe external shock that hit poor countries hard.

“The crisis in the developing world has a potentially serious impact on everyday life since the margin of safety for so many people is so slim in even the best of times,” Portugal said.

While the MDGs are still within reach in certain regions and countries, Justin Yifu Lin, World Bank chief economist, said, “We know from past crises that human progress—whether in terms of income, nutrition, health or education—tends to decline sharply in bad times, while recovery in good times takes much longer.” –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR Senior Reporter, Manila Times