Global military spending hits $1.73 trillion in 2017
News & Trends •
russias spending meanwhile dropped by one fifth in real terms compared to 2016 to 66.3 billion dollars1 global military spending rose to 1.73 trillion in 2017 up by 1.1 per cent against that of 20161 the stockholm international peace research institute sipri said that the spending translated into 230 per person1 the u.s. remained the worlds largest spender with 610 billion unchanged year-on-year1 the u.s. accounted for over a third of global military expenditure1 the downward trend in us military spending that started in 2010 has come to an end said aude fleurant head of sipris arms and military expenditure programme1 second-placed china was estimated to have spent 228 billion dollars and according to sipri accounted for the largest absolute increase in spending 12 billion dollars measured in constant 2016 prices1 the research institute said it estimated that chinas share of global spending has doubled since 2008 to 13 per cent1 saudi arabia replaced russia in third place spending 69.4 billion dollars in 20171 the middle east was the region where military spending was estimated to account for the highest portion of gdp just over five per cent although sipri said data was sketchy from several countries including syria the united arab emirates qatar and yemen1 in spite of low oil prices armed conflict and rivalries throughout the middle east are driving the rise in military spending in the region said pieter wezeman senior researcher with the sipri programme1 seven countries in the middle east were among the 10 countries with the highest share of military spending as a portion of gdp including oman with 12 per cent of gdp and saudi arabia with 10 per cent of gdp1 the 2017 expenditure is highest level since the cold war with the u.s. china and saudi arabia topping the list a swedish-based research institute said wednesday1 it was the first drop since 1998. sipri attributed the drop to factors such as falling oil prices1 military modernization remains a priority in russia wezeman said1 india edged france to take fifth place spending almost 64 billion dollars1 the combined spending of the top five military spenders accounted for 60 per cent of global military spending1 europe accounted for one fifth of global military spending but fell compared to 2016 and was only slightly higher than in 2008.1 four of the top 15 global military spenders were based in europe france britain germany and italy1 asia and oceanias share of global military spending was about one quarter mainly fuelled by chinas expenditure1 other top spenders in the region that were among the top 15 global spenders were india japan south korea and australia.1 the institute said algeria remained africas largest spender but its spending dropped in 2017 due to lower oil and gas prices.1 in south america spending increased over 4 per cent driven by argentina and brazil1 sipri said its figures include salaries costs for operations purchases of arms and equipment as well as research and development.dpanan1