UN AGENCY HAILS DECREASED MALNUTRITION IN ARMENIA
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
Oct 17 2007
The proportion of Armenians suffering from malnutrition has declined
considerably in recent years and is no longer high by international
standards, a senior official from the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Wednesday.
Maria Kadlecikova, the FAO representative to Europe and Central Asia,
welcomed Armenian government data that show the malnutrition rate
falling from 2.8 percent to 1.8 percent between 2002 and 2005.
"You achieved a great improvement in the years 2002-2005," she said.
"This means that the number of those who are undernourished
significantly decreased [in this period.]"
Kadlecikova cautioned, however, that the number of underfed people
in Armenia has not changed since 2005. "This number is not so high,"
she told reporters in Yerevan. "It is improving, but at this moment
we are noting that it is stagnating."
The government portrays the improved nutrition as a further indication
that Armenia’s double-digit economic growth has benefited all segments
of the population. According to government statistics, the percentage
of Armenians living below the official poverty line shrank from 50
percent to 33 percent between 1999 and 2004 and has dropped further
since then. In its policy program approved by parliament in June,
the government forecast that the poverty rate will fall below 12
percent by 2012.