Sri Lanka ranked 39th this year, four notches above last year's rank, in the Global Hunger Index (GHI), released for the ninth year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.

Sri Lanka's 2014 GHI score dropped to 15.1 this year from the 16.8 in 2013.

The 2014 GHI examines levels of hunger in 120 developing countries and countries in transition and scores them based on three equally weighted indicators: the proportion of people who are undernourished, the proportion of children under five who are underweight, and the mortality rate of children under five.

In Sri Lanka, proportion of undernourished in the population steadily decreased from a 33.4% in 1990-1992 period to 22.8% in the 2011-2013 period.

Prevalence of underweight in children under five years however marginally increased in the 2009 - 2013 period to 21.6% from 21.1% recorded for 2003 -2007.

The Under-five mortality rate which indicates the deaths of children under five years of age has been declining from 2.1% in 1990 to 1.0% in 2012 and is the lowest in South Asia.

Elsewhere in south Asia, India made some progress this year in reducing poverty level ranking 55th out of 76 countries ahead of Bangladesh (57) and Pakistan (57), but behind Nepal (44) and Sri Lanka (39). Last year India was at 63rd position in the GHI behind both Bangladesh and Pakistan