A Poor Young Nation

Mats Lundahl () and Fredrik Sjöholm
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Mats Lundahl: Stockholm School of Economics

Chapter 1 in The Creation of the East Timorese Economy, 2019, pp 1-33 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter provides a detailed description of living conditions in East Timor at the time of independence. East Timor was then one of the poorest countries on earth. The majority of the population lived a rural life based on subsistence farming, which relied on time-honored techniques. Modernity and change had been restricted to a limited share of the population based in the few major cities. As much as 40 percent of the population was living in poverty, food security was a major problem during almost one-third of the year, life expectancy at birth was about 60 years, infrastructure was lacking, and hardly any of the East Timorese themselves perceived of their situation as satisfactory. As a result, the 2002 national development plan put heavy emphasis on poverty reduction and equitable and sustainable economic growth. At the time, East Timor was a heavily aid-dependent country.

Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-22052-5_1

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-22052-5_1

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