Office of the Historian

Editorial Note

The summary table which follows is adapted from the Report of Activities of the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Problems [80th Cong., 2d sess., House Document No. 737] (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1948). The report also contains numerous supporting tables which provide more detailed breakdowns of the summary figures.

Included are loans and property credits, relief, and other grants made to foreign countries between July 1, 1945, and December 31, 1947. The disparate components may be defined as follows:

Loans—These represent cash loans anticipating repayment in cash of principal plus interest. Commitments reported by the Export-Import Bank represent authorizations approved by the Board of Directors, which included, as of December 31, certain loans that had not been formalized by credit agreements. Included in this loan category, then, are these commitments, direct loans by the Export-Import Bank and other government agencies, and loans of agent banks fully guaranteed by the Export-Import Bank.

Property credits—These represent credits extended in connection with (a) disposal of surplus property including merchant ships, (b) settlement for lend-lease articles and services, and (c) commodity credits used to finance raw material shipments to the occupied areas for manufacture and export. In general the objectives of the loans and property credits were to assist in rehabilitation and to further the development of national economies above the level of self-sufficiency for minimum needs.

Relief—These include supplies, services, and funds furnished by the United States Government to international or national agencies for relief abroad, or directly by the United States Government to a recipient area. Relief includes funds and goods given through UNRRA, Post-UNRRA Relief, Interim Aid, the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, the International Children’s Emergency Fund, the International Refugee Organization, and the governmental appropriation component of American Red Cross aid.

Grants—These reflect the estimated value of such aid including “Lend-Lease” furnished on a grant basis, and civilian supplies furnished by the U.S. Army for Italian relief and the occupied areas of Germany and Japan for purposes of alleviating disease and unrest, and by the U.S. Navy on the Pacific Islands. Other grants included aid furnished the American Republics in cultural and economic programs, aid furnished China, the Philippines, Greece, and Turkey.

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Many of the grants had been made to rehabilitate national economies to the level of self-sufficiency for minimum needs, whereas the relief funds had been expended to sustain life and to prevent economic and physical retrogression. Marshall Plan figures are not included. This grant and loan program was inaugurated in 1948.

Table 1.—U.S. Government loans, property credits, and grants to foreign countries utilized, July 1, 1945, through Dec. 31, 1947, and unutilized as of Dec. 31, 1947, by type and country

[In millions of dollars]

Area and country Total utilized and unutilized Amount utilized July 1, 1945, to Dec. 31, 1947 Unutilized balance, Dec. 31, 1947
Total Loans and property credits* Relief and other grants† Total Loans and property credits* Relief and other grants† Total Loans and property credits* Relief and other grants†
TOTAL, ALL AREAS 18,180 9,899 8,281 14,595 8,134 6,461 3,585 1,765 1,820
Total, Europe 13,400 8,217 5,183 11,157 7,270 3,887 2,244 947 1,297
Total, European recovery program participating countries and western Germany 11,520 7,693 3,827 9,477 6,868 2,610 2,043 825 1,217
Austria 341 34 307 244 6 238 97 29 69
Belgium and Luxemburg 262 199 63 212 149 63 50 50
Denmark 30 30 16 16 14 14
France 2,338 1,990 346 1,966 1,892 74 370 98 272
Greece 742 121 621 488 97 391 254 94 930
Italy 1,320 369 950 1,011 249 761 309 120 189
Netherlands 342 316 26 300 273 26 42 42
Norway 92 91 1 32 31 1 60 60
Sweden 1 1 1 1
Switzerland 2 2 2 2
Trieste 22 22 12 12 10 10
Turkey 152 52 100 14 13 1 138 39 99
United Kingdom 4,732 4,435 297 4,397 4,100 297 335 335
Western Germany 1,146 1,090 783 41 742 362 14 348
Total, Europe, non-European recovery program 1,582 499 1,083 1,485 402 1,083 97 97
Albania 20 20 20 20
Czechoslovakia 211 30 182 211 30 182 (‡) (‡)
Finland 123 121 2 85 83 2 39 39
Hungary 19 16 2 19 16 2 39 39
Poland. 453 90 363 420 57 363 33 33
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 464 242 222 438 216 222 25 25
Yugoslavia 292 242 292 292 292
Unallocable Europe 298 24 274 195 195 104 24 79
Netherlands Indies 204 200 4 68 64 4 136 136
Other dependencies of European recovery program participating countries (‡) (‡) (‡) (‡) (‡) (‡)
Canada 300 300 300 300
American Republics 501 471 30 248 226 22 253 246 8
China 1,491 250 1,241 1,407 206 1,201 84 44 40
Iran 38 38 13 13 25 95
Japan 1,100 202 898 834 196 638 266 6 260
Korea (southern) 180 25 155 108 15 93 72 10 62
Philippines 391 86 305 234 76 158 157 10 147
Saudi Arabia 29 27 2 14 12 2 15 15
All other countries 113 81 32 88 56 32 25 25
Unallocable 433 2 430 423 423 9 2 7
  1. See table 2 for supporting detail. [Footnote in the source text; table not printed herein.]↩
  2. See table 3 for supporting detail. [Footnote in the source text; table not printed herein.]↩
  3. See table 2 for supporting detail. [Footnote in the source text; table not printed herein.]↩
  4. See table 3 for supporting detail. [Footnote in the source text; table not printed herein.]↩
  5. See table 2 for supporting detail. [Footnote in the source text; table not printed herein.]↩
  6. See table 3 for supporting detail. [Footnote in the source text; table not printed herein.]↩
  7. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  8. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  9. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  10. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  11. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  12. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  13. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩
  14. Less than $500,000. [Footnote in the source text.]↩