Global military spending grows at record pace

Global military spending reached two trillion 443 billion dollars in 2023, an increase of 6.8% in real terms compared to 2022. This is the sharpest increase in the last 14 years, it is noted in the report Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

For the first time since 2009, military spending increased in all five geographic regions defined by SIPRI, with the largest increases in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. Total spending amounted to more than two percent of global GDP. The United States, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia contributed the most to these purposes. They accounted for 61% of global military spending.

In 2023, Russian military spending increased by 24%, amounting to $109 billion, according to SIPRI estimates, up 57% from 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. In 2023, Russia’s defense allocations reached 16% of the state budget expenditures (about six percent of GDP), experts note.

Data on Russian military spending in 2023 are highly uncertain due to the growing opacity of Russian financial authorities following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The authors of the publication point out that in Russia, in addition to budget funds, money is allocated to the military sector from extra-budgetary sources, such as enterprises, individuals and organizations.

Ukraine is in eighth place in the world in terms of military spending, which last year increased by 51% – to 64 billion 800 million dollars (37% of the country’s GDP). During the year, Kyiv also received $35 billion in military aid. In total, this assistance and Ukraine’s own military spending amounted to approximately 91% of Russia’s.

Among NATO member countries, the United States spends the most on defense. The US defense budget increased to 916 billion or 68% of the total military spending of NATO member states. Among European states, in the period from 2022 to 2023, Poland increased its military spending the most – by 75% to $31 billion 600 million. This is the 14th largest defense budget in the world.

Defense spending in China has increased for 29 years in a row. Last year, China’s military budget grew by $296 billion, which is six percent more than the year before.

SIPRI analysts estimate that total military spending in the Middle East will increase by nine percent in 2023 to $200 billion. This is the highest annual growth rate in the region in the last decade. Thus, Israel’s defense budget increased by 24%, amounting to more than $27 billion. Experts associate a significant increase in military spending in the Middle East with the escalation of the situation in the region and the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack on Israel and the deterioration of Iranian-Israeli relations.

“States are prioritizing military power at the risk of entering an action-reaction spiral in an increasingly unstable geopolitical and security environment,” said Nan Tian, ​​senior fellow at SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, in a commentary.