Value of aid overstated as donors reap interest on loans

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) club of rich countries has admitted it needs to comprehensively reassess how global aid figures are measured amid criticism that the value of assistance given is overstated by billions of dollars each year.

Leaving out the interest repayments that donors rece ive from developing countries inflates the value of official development assistance (ODA) loans by $5 billion (€3.8 billion) each year, according to analysis from Development Initiatives (DI), an independent research group based in Bristol.