HIV/AIDS Undermines Economic Progress in Africa, World Bank Report Says

HIV/AIDS, insufficient investment flows and declining commodity prices could destabilize recent economic progress in African countries, according to a World Bank report released on Wednesday, the AP/CBSNews.com reports. The 403-page report, titled "African Development Indicators 2005," states that the number of people living in poverty on the continent has almost doubled to 314 million, according to data from 1980 through 2003. Out of the world's 32 least-developed countries, 24 are in Africa and few are likely to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. In addition, the report found that more than one in three 15- to 49-year-olds in Swaziland are HIV-positive, compared with six in 1,000 in Mauritania; 72% of people in Mali live on less than $1 a day; and Burundi and Ethiopia have sub-Saharan Africa's lowest annual per capita income at $90 (Dunphy, AP/CBSNews.com, 6/29).