clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UN: Egypt is world’s largest recipient of development aid

September 22, 2015 at 9:19 am

Egypt was the largest receiver of development aid in 2013, the UN reported yesterday, adding that the African state was paid $5.5 billion in that year.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the results of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Gap Task Force report at a press conference in New York. Entitled “Taking Stock of the Global Partnership for Development,” the report focuses on recent achievements and gaps in the implementation of Millennium Development Goal 8, which calls for a commitment to forge a global partnership for development.

The report states that developed countries donated in 2014 nearly 0.3 per cent of their gross national income to developing countries to finance development projects.

According to the report, despite foreign aid to Egypt, the official indicators in the country show a slowing economy. The standard of living remains unchanged especially in light of the high unemployment rates and the high consumer price inflation rates.

The Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics said unemployment rate reached up to 13.2 per cent or nearly four million people.

Egyptian government sources confirmed earlier this month that “Cairo will receive within the next few days oil aid and soft loans from Saudi Arabia totalling $2.5 billion as part of the kingdom’s pledges during the economic conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh, north-east Egypt, earlier in March.”

Vietnam, Syria and Turkey were among the top 10 countries to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA).

Egypt received generous support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE worth more than $30 billion following the ouster of the first elected President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013.

According to official Egyptian data, the country received nearly $16.7 billion in foreign aid between July 2013 and June 2014.