Switzerland donated marginally less development aid in 2007 than it did in 2006, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The new figures show that Switzerland gave 0.37 per cent of its GDP in aid in 2007 or SFr2.016 billion ($2.001 billion) compared to 0.39 per cent the previous year.

The Swiss government first called for a quota of 0.4 per cent of GDP at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 but has only once crossed this threshold itself, in 2005.

Switzerland is in the middle range of the 22 countries included in the OECD report, at the same level as Germany, ahead of Italy but behind France and Austria.

Only Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands have met the UN goal of 0.7 per cent of GDP.

The OECD warned in its report that most donors were not on track to meet their stated commitments to scale up aid and would need to make unprecedented increases to meet the targets they have set for 2010.

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