N.Z. eighth in aid

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 18

N.Z. eighth in aid

N’ZPA London. New Zealand has lifted its position to eighth in the league of aia-giving countries of the Organisa-

tion for Economic Cooperation and Development (0.E.C.D.), according to recently published figures. In spite of its economic problems, New Zealand ranks above the United States and the United Kingdom when aid is expressed as a percentage of gross national product (G.N.P.) In a survey of the 1.7 members of the O.E.C.D.’s Development Assistance Committee (D.A.C.) the Netherlands and Sweden are shown as the West’s most generous nations, and Austria the least. New Zealand contributed 0.43 per cent of its GN.P. in aid, 0.9 per cent less than in 1975, but 0.23 per cent more than the average for the years from 1965 to 1967. The Netherlands’ and Sweden’s aid as a percentage of G.N.P. was 0.32 per cent. In dollar terms, New Zealand contributed SS3M in 1976, compared with S66M in 1975, and an average of SUM in 196567.

The Netherlands’ 1976 total was S72OM and the United States, a huge 54334 M.

The American percentage of G.N.P. however was only 0.25 per cent — 0.18 per cent less than New Zealand.

The over-all figures for the 17 nations clearly did not show a picture of unmitigated generosity, but, given the pressures in many countries for slashing Government spending budgets, aid had arguably held up quite well.

The real difficulty was that the three largest industrial nations in the non-Communist world — the United States, Japan and West Germany — had aid records that were among the worst, leaving a disproportionate aid burden to be borne by the smaller developed countries.

Only three countries — the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — exceeded the United Nations target of allocating 0.7 per cent or more of national income to help the Third World.

In the same year as the D.A.C. figures, the average flow of aid from the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and China amounted to only 0.03 per cent of G.N.P.