▲ This undated file photo shows government officials holding a meeting on international development assistance. (Yonhap)

S Korea-development aid

S. Korea's official development aid falls 3.9 pct in 2025

SEOUL, April 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's official development assistance (ODA) posted an on-year decrease of 3.9 percent to US$3.87 billion in 2025, due to a weak exchange rate and reduced multilateral aid, the government said Friday.

Citing preliminary data from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Office for Government Policy Coordination said South Korea's ODA last year consisted of $3.21 billion in bilateral aid and $660 million in multilateral aid.

While bilateral aid increased on-year by $22 million, in areas such as health, transportation and logistics, multilateral aid contracted 21.1 percent over the same period due to the base effect of temporarily increased assistance to Ukraine.

South Korea's standing among the 33 DAC member states remained unchanged at 13th place in terms of total ODA, the office said in a press release.

As a proportion of gross national income, the country's aid level was 0.20 percent, similar to the previous year's 0.21 percent.

The office also noted that compared with other major donor nations, such as the United States, Germany and Britain, South Korea's decline of 3.9 percent was muted.

In total, DAC member states offered $174.3 billion in ODA last year, marking the biggest on-year decline of 19 percent since the program began.

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