NZ bad at forking out aid

NZ one of world's worst aid givers - OECD
By MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Wednesday, 4 April 2007

New Zealand is one of the rich world's worst aid donors to the poor, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says today.

And the non-government aid organisation Oxfam has slammed the news, describing New Zealand as miserly.

In a report out in Paris today, the OECD says aid from its 22 members fell last year and accounted for 0.3 per cent of the combined gross national income (GNI) of the countries.

The same figures show that New Zealand gives just 0.27 per cent of GNI and ranks in the bottom six.

The biggest donors are Sweden at 1.03 per cent of GNI and Luxembourg and Norway at 0.89 per cent.

The worst of the donors are New Zealand, Japan at 0.25 per cent, Portugal at 0.21 percent, Italy at 0.2 per cent, the US at 0.17 per cent and Greece at 0.16 per cent.

The United Nations target is for countries to give 0.7 percent.

Oxfam New Zealand wanted this year's government budget to lift official development aid.

More here .