Growing economies, better debt management, and debt relief for the poorest countries have allowed developingcountries to substantially reduce their debt burdens. Despite the financial crisis, which caused the globaleconomy to contract by 2.3 percent in 2009, debt service ratios continued to fall in most developing regions.
OECD countries (which include some upper-middleincome economies such as Mexico and Chile) spendmore on support to domestic agricultural producers than they do on official development assistance. In 2010 theOECD producer support estimate stood at $227 billion, down by about 10 percent from the previous threeyears.
The financial crisis that began in 2008 and fiscal austerity in many high income economies have threatened toundermine commitments to increase official development assistance. So far leading donors havemaintained their level of effort. Total disbursements by members of the OECD Development Assistancecommittee reached $130 billion in 2010, a real increase of 4.3 percent over 2008.