1973 was a bad year for development aid. The net flow of official development assistance from the developed, market-economy countries which are members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development increased in terms of United States dollars from $8,672 million in 1972 to $9,408 million in 1973, a nominal increase of 8.5 per cent. However, the prices of the goods and services financed by this aid are estimated to have increased by 27 per cent, with a particularly rapid increase of prices for food aid, so that in real terms the net flow appears to have decreased by about 15 per cent.