Libya is set to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if statistics published by its general office of statistics and document a tion are anything to go by.
The data report said progress had been made in the country’s life expectancy, ri sing from 63 years in 1993 to 69 years in 2004 and to 74.1 years in 2008.
PANA quoted the statistics as indicating that the level of illiteracy in the cou ntry fell during the same period, dropping by half (from 26.6 per cent down to 1 3 .2 per cent).
Progress was also made in school attendance rate that climbed from 88 per cent t o 94 per cent.
The 2005 UNDP report said Libya’s human development indicators (HDI) was among t he highest in Africa.
Libya, which is the third largest African oil producer with estimated reserves o f 40 billion barrels of oil and 1,500 billion m3 of gas, achieved an increase in
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 6.5 per cent in 2008 through the growth of t h e hydrocarbon sector and non-oil activities as shown by the statistics in this a r ea.
Libya subsidises a large range of social services, including the payment of grat uity to workers in the public health institutions, water, electricity and fuel.
