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Weekly Bulletin issue no. 41, 1997 <sti>Stikktittel

Foreign aid spending. Preliminary figures from the OECD, 1996:

OECD countries spend less on foreign aid

Preliminary figures from the OECD show that public spending on development assistance in 1996 totalled about $55.1 billion. For the OECD as a whole, the amount represents 0.25 per cent of the members' combined gross national product (GNP). This is the lowest level since the United Nations approved a goal of 0.70% nearly 30 years ago. Norway's contribution totalled $1.3 billion in 1996, or nearly NOK 9 billion, i.e. 0.85 per cent of GNP.
Spending on development aid as a percentage of GNP is now the most common international comparison basis. In 1970, the UN adopted the goal that development assistance should make up 0.7 per cent of GNP. The Scandinavian countries reached the goal in the 1970s. In 1996 only Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands complied with the target. The percentage for the OECD as a whole was 0.25 per cent in 1996, against 0.27 per cent in 1995.

New Statistics

Foreign aid spending. Preliminary figures from the OECD, 1996.
Statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. More information: Jan Gerhard Rødal, tel. +47 21 09 45 24, e-mail: jgr@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 41, 1997