Stockholm
Global military spending has never been as high as it is in 2022. Peace researchers interpret this as a sign of an increasingly insecure world.
In the year of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the world military spending climbed to a new record. As the Stockholm peace research institute “Sipri” announced in a new report on Monday, global investments in their own armies rose by 3.7 percent in 2022 to 2.24 trillion US dollars (around 2.04 trillion euros).
Military spending: Highest rise in Europe since the Cold War
According to Sipri, since the beginning of the Ukraine war and the “turning point” in the European order, spending on their own armies has also increased in many European countries. However, concerns about a Russian attack have been building since 2014 – the year of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Many former Eastern Bloc countries have since more than doubled their military spending.
Europa has by far the strongest increase in spending, with an inflation-adjusted increase of 13 percent. In absolute terms, spending in 2022 was $480 billion. The Central and Western European countries alone spent 345 billion US dollars on their military and thus reached the level of the Cold War for the first time since 1989.
Germany is seventh in the ranking
However, the USA remains the clear leader when it comes to military spending. After a 0.7 percent increase, they ended up spending $877 billion, including $19.9 billion military aid for Ukraine. This gives them a 39 percent share of global spending and triples that of China (estimated at $292 billion) in second place. Russia increased its military spending by 9.2 percent to an estimated $86.4 billion, jumping from fifth to third place. India and Saudi Arabia complete the top five, with the UK in sixth.
Germany ranks seventh at $55.8 billion, up 2.3 percent. With a view to the reported special assets for the Bundeswehr in the amount of 100 billion euros, Sipri expects a significant increase in German military spending in the coming years. At 1.4 percent, Germany is still a long way from the NATO goal of spending two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
Ukraine: Highest increase in military spending in Sipri history
And Ukraine? The recorded an increase of a whopping 640 percent – the highest that Sipri has ever registered for a country in a single year. With military spending now at $44 billion, not including financial support and armaments donations from abroad, Ukraine suddenly jumps from 36th place to 11th place. In view of this cost increase and the immense consequences of the war for Ukraine Business spending was equivalent to an estimated 34 percent of the country’s GDP, up from 3.2 percent in 2021.
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Military Spending: In the Far East, too, more was invested in armies
Also in the countries Asia’s and Oceania, the researchers observe an increase. Total military spending in Asia and Oceania rose 2.7 percent, adjusted for inflation, to $575 billion. China (4.2 percent), India (6.0 percent) and Japan (5.9 percent) account for almost three quarters of regional spending.
“The continuous one rise of global military spending in recent years is a sign that we live in an increasingly insecure world,” said Sipri researcher Nan Tian. The annual Sipri report is considered the world‘s most comprehensive collection of data on countries’ military spending. The peace researchers also count expenses for personnel, military aid and military research and development among the expenses. (oli/dpa)
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