Portugal recorded a total amount of around €493 million in Public Development Assistance in 2023, which represented a drop of 8.5% in real terms compared to the previous year.
Portuguese public development aid in 2023 increased in absolute value compared to the previous yearbut fell 8.5% in real termsmainly due to inflation and exchange rates, says the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Taking into account inflation in 2023 and the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro, real growth ends up being negative, Harsh Desai, an analyst at the statistics department for development financing, told Lusa this Monday.
“It is true that the ODA (of Portugal) in 2023 was 526 million dollars, at constant prices to allow a comparison in the two years, adjusting exchange rates and monetary fluctuations,” explained the analyst, highlighting that taking into account Taking these Factors into account “it can be said that in 2023 Portugal’s total ODA decreased by 8.5% in real terms compared to 2022”.
Last year, Portugal’s ODA was 526 million dollarswhich represents about 490 million euros at the current exchange rate.
On Thursday, Lusa had reported that the Portugal’s ODA increased by 480 million euros in 2022with data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to 490 million euros last year, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and without taking into account inflation or exchange rates, making only a comparison of absolute values with the exchange rates referring to the day on which they were reported.
The Camões Institute also told Lusa this Monday that the fall occurs with the increase in Gross National Income.
The Portuguese ONGD Platform, highlighting that there was a drop in real terms of 8.5 percentHe regretted the decline and asked the new government to reverse the situation.
The Platform, which represents 62 Portuguese NGDOs, states that its expectation “is that this trend can be reversed in the coming years.
“It is this call that we make to the new Government, which included in its program the commitment to apply the Portuguese Cooperation Strategy 2030, whose objective is to progressively increase ODA,” the institution wrote in a statement sent to Lusa.
Ana Paula Fernandes, president of Camões, Institute of Cooperation and Language, which coordinates the Portuguese APD, mentioned in the explanation that the The decrease in Portuguese aid amounts in real terms, that is, at constant 2022 prices, is due to three competing factors, starting with the increase in Gross National Income (GNI). in 2023.
The decrease in ODA in 2023 is due to the “decrease in the cost of refugees, repayments of credit lines” happened last year, and the fact that public development aid “did not follow the growth of the GNI,” the manager explained in statements to Lusa.
“As ODA is calculated based on GNI, obviously there is an impact, that’s what we can say,” said the president of Camões.
Portugal registered a total amount of 526 million dollars (about 493 million euros at the current exchange rate) of ODA in 2023, which represented a drop of 8.5% in real terms compared to the previous year, if the evolution of inflation and exchange rates in relation to at constant prices in 2022.
Thus, measured in relation to GNI, the Portuguese aid thus fell from 0.21% in 2022 to 0.19% in 2023. according to the summary of preliminary data provided by members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), published on the 11th.
This record is very far from the commitment made by Portugal before the OECD in 2004 to place the “minimum threshold” of its ODA at 0.33% of GNI and even further from the reference of 0.7% of GNI established by the United Nations and assumed by all members of the DAC, although only respected by Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden.
Source: Observadora
