Summaries The objectives and importance of Norwegian balance of payments support offered mainly as commodity import support (CIS) is described and discussed. Six evaluations of Norwegian CIS has been reviewed in order to assess their methodology and findings, with particular emphasis on their treatment of the macro‐economic impact. Five of the studies did not consider macroeconomic impact, but looked at the specific objectives of the aid. With untied balance of payments support, however, macro aspects, linked to policy conditionality, become central to evaluation. The sixth study reviewed raises some interesting questions in this regard.