Date: 01 Mar 2011
Summary for 4th Quarter 2010
• Malagasy policymakers have been monitoring the prices of rice and petroleum. Authorities decided to stabilise the price of gasoline and intervened to improve access to rice for poor people in vulnerable peri-urban areas.
• Production in almost all industrial sectors for the last quarter of 2010 has declined while service sectors have slightly improved.
• National rate of unemployment reached a level of 3.8% in 2010. In addition, 76.5% of the Malagasy population are poor with poverty rates of 54.2% in urban areas and 82.2% in rural areas.
• In the south, current rainfall is sufficient and favourable to agriculture activities but with varying distribution across the municipalities. In contrast, many other parts of the Island have suffered from the delay of rain.
• A deterioration of food security has been observed both in rice producing areas and in areas with high risk of seasonal drought. However, it has improved in areas with higher risk of floods and cyclones.
• The price of rice has increased by 10% compared to last year. Current prices are the highest that the five year average.
• The national rate of global acute malnutrition (GAM) has levelled at 5.4% in August/September 2010. In some regions worryingly high levels were already noted even at the beginning of the lean period.