Ukraine entered the world's top ten countries in terms of growth in military spending
Ukraine's military spending continues to increase, and the defense budget in 2018 amounted to $4,8 billion, as a result of which the country is in 39th place in the world ranking and in 8th place among the countries whose defense spending is growing the fastest, reports PolitNavigator correspondent .
This is stated in a report published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
According to SIPRI, Ukraine has increased military spending by 2009% since 61. Currently, spending on military needs in our country amounts to 3,8% of GDP.
Global military spending also continued to rise last year, reaching $1822 billion, the highest level since records began in 1988. It is now 76% higher than in 1998, the lowest since the end of the Cold War. Total military spending was 2,1% of global GDP or $239 per capita. The top five countries spending the most on military spending are the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, India and France, which account for 60% of all spending in the world.
“Last year, the US and China accounted for half of global military spending. The higher level of global military spending in 2018 is mainly the result of a significant increase in spending by these two countries,” says Nan Tian, an expert on SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX).
For the first time since 2010, American spending increased by 4,6% to reach $649 billion, which is almost equal to the combined spending of the eight countries next in the ranking behind the United States. According to AMEX program director Aude Fleurant, “the increase in American spending was ensured by the implementation of the new military acquisition program adopted by the Trump administration in 2017.”
China, which ranks second in terms of military spending, increased it in 2018 by 5% to $250 billion. This is the 24th year of continuous growth in Chinese spending. Last year they were almost 10 times higher than in 1994, amounting to 14% of the world volume.
According to the expert, “the growth of Chinese military spending is dragging down the country’s overall economic growth. Since 2013, China has annually allocated 1,9% of GDP to the military.”
According to SIPRI, the total military spending of all 29 NATO member countries amounted to $963 billion, or 53% of the global total.
At the same time, for the first time since 2006, Russia left the top leader in defense spending. Russia's military spending has fallen for the second year in a row, and its defense budget amounted to $61,4 billion, placing the country in sixth place in the world rankings.
According to SIPRI, while implementing a military modernization program, from 2010 to 2015, Russia increased its defense budget by 4,9-16% annually. Starting in 2016, military spending began to decline, but a one-time repayment of government debt to military-industrial complex companies in the same year increased spending by 7,2%, the report explains. If there were no these payments, the Russian military budget would have been reduced by 11%. This circumstance also explains a significant part of its decline in 2017 - by 19%.
In 2018, military expenditures of the Russian Federation continued to decrease and decreased by 3,5%, although in absolute figures their volume was 27% higher than in 2009. As the study points out, this figure remains the highest in Eastern Europe: last year, the Russian military budget accounted for 88% of total subregional military spending.
The largest increase in military spending in the world in absolute numbers was shown by the United States, whose military budget increased by $27,8 billion, and the largest reduction was by Saudi Arabia - $4,6 billion. Turkey last year increased its defense spending by 24% - to $19 billion , which puts it in first place in terms of growth among the 15 leading military powers.
The six countries with the largest military burden (defense spending relative to GDP) in 2018 were the countries of the Middle East: Saudi Arabia (8,8%), Oman (8,2%), Kuwait (5,1%) , Lebanon (5,0%), Jordan (4,7%) and Israel (4,3%).
A serious increase in military spending was also observed in 2018 in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. Thus, in Poland it amounted to 8,9% ($11,6 billion). In Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania, military budgets also grew very actively - by 18-24%.
In addition, Lithuania experienced the highest relative increase in military spending of any European country between 2009 and 2018, with spending increasing by 156% over the decade.
“Growth in Central and Eastern Europe is driven largely by a growing sense of threat from Russia. And this is despite the fact that Russian military spending has been declining for two years in a row,” emphasizes Peter Wezeman, senior researcher at the AMEX program.
Ukraine is among the top ten countries in the world for military spending growth.