300. with respect to the goal of improving savlng performance, a6 in the case of investmen! performance, the record of the developing countries during the development ddcades is mixed. saving performance by most Eroups of developing countries generally inproved during the first Development Decade, although not. at. a rate sufficient to finance thei.r growing levels'of spending for lnvestmentpurposes. The share of national saving in GDp of the rapidly growing group of newly industrializing economles rose over 0.75 per cent each year bettreen 1960 and 1970. lessening substantially their bigh dependence on forelgn capital inflows.Significant increases in saving ratios in the 19506 erere also registered in the economies classified as agricultural exporters and the residual group of ',otherdeveloping economies"- On the other hand, two groups of developing economies' the laast developed economies and the petroleum e:(porters, had lorrer saving shares in l9?0 than in 1960 (see table 53 above).A/ 40/519 EngLish Page 142 301. Saving performance among developing econofiles was even more diverse alurlng theSecond Development Decade. Although the overall average saving ratio for alldevelopi.ng countries rose on average more than 0.5 per cent a year, this lncreaseis traceable mainly to the petroleum-expor ting economi.es. In contrast, in thepetroleum-i mpor ting economies saving rates generarry declined fron 1970 to 19g0.As one example, the supply of national saving fell as a percentage of GDp of 2lleast deveroped countries for which data are avairabre and rose in onry 12. onereason for the decline in saving performance in these countries can be traced tothe poor performance of the agricultural sector, where a substantial part of anyextra income is saved. per capita food outpu! declined in many disadvantagedcountries in the 1970s, hrhile international prices for primary commodities soaredand foreign borrowing rose, with the result that the prime source of domesticallygenerated saving contracted jusC when the need for it lras greatest.
**Analysis**
The text primarily discusses the topic of saving performance in developing countries, specifically analyzing the trends and factors that affect national saving rates. The text also mentions the impact of agricultural sector performance and foreign capital inflows on saving rates. The overall theme of the text is economic development, as it focuses on the goal of improving saving performance to finance investment purposes.

**Category**
Economic development