Washington -- Total
U.S. financial flows to the developing world -- official
development assistance, private capital flows and private
grants -- reached a record-breaking $104.4 billion in calendar
year 2005, according to new figures released by the government.
The latest figures, issued in mid-October
after a six-month review, also show that official development
assistance (ODA) from the U.S. government -- nonmilitary
grants and loans -- attained a record $27.6 billion, an
increase of $7.9 billion over 2004.
The largest recipients of U.S. aid were
Iraq ($10.8 billion), Afghanistan ($1.3 billion), Sudan
($771 million), Ethiopia ($625 million), Egypt ($397 million),
Pakistan ($362 million), Jordan ($354 million), Colombia
($334 million), Uganda ($242 million) and Serbia-Montenegro
($181 million).
U.S. money accounted for more than 25 percent
of all government aid provided by the 30 members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
the industrialized-country group that provides the bulk
of foreign assistance worldwide.
Some development experts have been critical
that U.S. official assistance, measured as a percentage
of gross national income (GNI), is small compared with that
of many other OECD countries. The ODA-GNI ratio for the
United States rose from 0.17 percent in 1997 to 0.22 percent
in 2005, the highest level in 20 years. Other experts argue
that ODA is not the most significant indicator of foreign
assistance. If U.S. direct investments, aid from nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), private charitable donations and remittances
of immigrants living in the United States to their home
countries are added to ODA, total U.S. assistance dwarfs
amounts provided by other countries, they say.
Net U.S. direct investments in developing
countries reached $69.2 billion in 2005, as purchases of
foreign stocks and bonds exceeded sales by $39.8 billion
and new long-term bank lending exceeded principal payments
on existing bank debt by $22.8 billion. Many of the private
capital flows were directed to developing countries in the
Americas and Asia.
The most recently released U.S. government
figures also show that private grants from U.S.-based NGOs,
foundations, faith-based organizations, institutions of
higher education and other groups totaled $8.6 billion in
calendar year 2005, a $1.8 billion increase over 2004. This
was the 10th straight annual increase in overseas private
giving by U.S. entities.
According to a study by the Hudson Institute,
a private research organization, by including $47 billion
in remittances in the total of U.S. assistance, ODA represented
only about 20 percent of total U.S. financial flows to the
developing world in 2004.
Excluding remittances, in 2005 total U.S.
ODA, private capital flows, and private grants, as a percentage
of gross national income, was 0.84 percent – the highest
level since 1997.
Cheryl Pellerin
Washington File Staff Writer
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