We spend more on aid than Germany (but our population is 20million less than theirs) Britain is second on the world aid league table behind the U.S. It spent £9billion on foreign aid in 2012 to leapfrog Germany in the table Germany slashed its aid budget by £1billion in just one year Britain has leapfrogged Germany to take the number two spot in the world aid league table. As other countries scramble to slash their aid budgets, latest figures show we spent £9billion on overseas aid in 2012 - second only to the US, which spent £20.1billion. A year earlier, Germany was ahead of the UK in terms of aid but Britain overtook it as Berlin slashed its budget by almost £1billion in just one year, according to figures compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Haiti flood victims carry sacks of grain sent from relief workers. Britain has leapfrogged Germany to take the number two spot in the world aid league table Germany spends less on aid despite the fact it has a far larger population than the UK. There are 81.8million Germans compared to 63.2million Britons, meaning we spent £143 per person on aid in 2012 compared to just £106 per person in Germany. In addition, Britain's GDP of £1.7trillion is far less than Germany's of £2.4trillion. Our economy is on the brink of re-entering recession, with a triple-dip looming and many expecting output not to grow in the first three months of the year. Yet Germany is expected to grow its output throughout this year, with the OECD forecasting it will be at the forefront of a global economic recovery next to Japan and the US. In the first three months of the year, economists expect the Eurozone's largest economy to increase by 0.6 per cent. In contrast, the UK will be lucky to see any growth. German inflation hit a two-year low of just 1.4 per cent in March, compared to the UK where inflation is running at 2.8 per cent. The OECD report shows that most member countries - 14 of them - have reduced the amount they spend on aid as a proportion of their national income as they struggle to deal with the global downturn. U.S. Army drops food over Haiti. Britain is second in the table behind America, which has 317million population OECD chairman Erik Solheim praised the UKs for standing against the trend of cutting aid budgets. Angela Merkel's government cut foreign aid by £1billion in just one year But Britain was one of just five countries which kept the amount it spent on aid stable over the two years - at 0.56 per cent of national income. This is set to rise to 0.7 per cent by next year, in line with a Tory manifesto promise. At the same time, other countries have slashed their combined aid budgets by £4billion - the largest fall since 1997. Many Conservative backbenchers are incensed the Coalition is planning to increase aid spending yet further at a time when public services are facing stringent cuts. Douglas Carswell, Tory MP for Clacton, said: "We keep being told that we need austerity and yet we can find money to pay for overseas aid. It makes no sense. "I despair when I think of the way politicians hand over billions of pounds of taxpayers" money to subsidise foreign governments, but cut back on local services. This country has not had a budget surplus in 30 of the last 36 years. What makes us think we can afford this? The OECD expressed concern that most countries were slashing overseas aid - down by 4 per cent in the last year alone across the bloc. Plans to make Pakistan the biggest recipient of UK overseas aid are called into question in a hard-hitting report today. A cross-party group of MPs warn that taxpayers should not be made to foot the bill when wealthy Pakistanis refuse to pay taxes themselves. The International Development Select Committee says "corruption is rife" in Pakistan and that the local elite "does not pay meaningful amounts of tax." The Government has announced plans to end aid to India by 2015 but at the same time the amount going to its neighbour is set to soar from £267million now to £446million in 2014/15. The MPs demand that David Cameron pushes for action on corruption and tax evasion from Pakistan's leaders and the International Monetary Fund. Erik Solheim, chairman of the OECD's development assistance committee, singled out the UK for praise for standing against the trend. "Maintaining aid is not impossible even in today's fiscal climate," he said. The UK's 2013/14 budget increases its aid to 0.7 per cent of national income, which gives hope we can reverse the falling trend. In terms of the percentage of national income spent on aid, Britain ranks sixth in the world, the same as last year. Ahead of us are Luxembourg, which spent 1 per cent of national income on aid, and Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands - all of which spent more than 0.7 per cent. The only other country whose aid budget approached Britain's was Japan - £6.9billion. However, this was worth just 0.17 per cent of national income. Aid budgets across the OECD bloc fell for the second year in a row. Secretary general Jose Angel Gurria said: "It is worrying that budgetary duress in our member counties has led to a second successive fall in total aid." Oxfam's head of development finance and public services, Emma Seery, said: "The UK government has shown it is possible to keep aid promises even in the toughest economic times. Political will is crucial, especially as it is now clear that the eurozone crisis is having a devastating knock-on effect on some of the world's poorest people.