His analysis emphasises the volatility of these shares for individual countries from year to year rather than the trend over time. For NFIDCs, the situation is not as dramatic, with an average of food imports to total merchandise imports of about 12% and as much as 18% for some countries. Import expenditure can be financed by aid inflows and by borrowing, but in the longer run, a country will find it easier to rely on food imports if it can finance these imports from its own foreign earnings.