The slowdown mostly reflects trends in China. At 39 per 1,000 live births, China’s child mortality rate is half of the global average and below any regional average apart from Latin America and the Caribbean. However, in the past two decades progress on reducing child mortality has slowed sharply, and was less than 2 per cent during the 1990s.

In contrast, under-five mortality has fallen rapidly in Indonesia, the second most populous country in the region. Indonesia managed to halve its infant mortality from 91 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to just 45 in 2002, a level approaching China’s rate for the same year. Indonesia remains on schedule to meet MDG 4.