Japan remained the world's top economic aid donor in 1998 for the eighth consecutive year, providing a total of $10.68 billion in official development assistance, according to statistics released Friday by the Development Assistance Committee.
ODA was up 14.2 percent from $9.36 billion in 1997, mainly due to a surge in aid to Asian countries hit by the region's economic crisis, the DAC said.
DAC is the aid organ of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a 29-member Paris-based group of industrialized nations.
The 21 countries that belong to DAC dished out $51.59 billion in aid in 1998, up 6.8 percent from the previous year, according to the DAC report.
Fourteen states reported a rise in ODA in 1998.
Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden remained the only countries to meet the United Nations target of disbursing aid equivalent to 0.7 percent of gross national product. Japan ranked 12th with a 0.28 percent ODA-GNP ratio, the report shows.
China was the top recipient of Japanese ODA in 1998, receiving $1.08 billion. Indonesia came in second and Thailand third.
Japan disbursed $3.65 billion in governmental loans, $2.17 billion in grants-in-aid and $2.77 billion in technical assistance in 1998 to foreign countries. The remaining 2.09 billion yen was given to international aid bodies, according to a Foreign Ministry official.
The world's second largest aid donor is the United States, which extended $8.13 billion in ODA in 1998, followed by France and Germany, each offering a little less than $6 billion, according to the DAC report.