Yahoo News World military expenditure exceeds $2 trillion for the first time in 2021, SIPRI says
The top five spending countries include the United States, China, India, the UK and Russia, which together account for 62% of global military expenditure.
$2.1 trillion is a record military spending, SIPRI noted. This is the seventh year in a row that spending increased.
“Even amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, world military spending hit record levels," said Dr Diego Lopez da Silva, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
“There was a slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth due to inflation. In nominal terms, however, military spending grew by 6.1%.”
As a result of a sharp economic recovery in 2021, the ratio of global military expenditure to world gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1 percentage points, from 2.3% in 2020 to 2.2% in 2021.
U.S. military spending amounted to $801 billion in 2021 – 1.4% less than in 2020. U.S. funding for military research and development rose by 24% between 2012 and 2021, while arms procurement funding fell by 6.4% over the same period.
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Russia increased its military expenditure by 2.9% in 2021 to $65.9 billion as it prepared for its full-scale war against Ukraine.
“High oil and gas revenues helped Russia to boost its military spending in 2021,” said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, Director of SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
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“Russian military expenditure had been in decline between 2016 and 2019 as a result of low energy prices combined with sanctions in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.”
China in 2021 allocated about $293 billion to its armed forces, which is 4.7% more than in 2020. China's military spending has grown for 27 consecutive years.
India's military spending amounted to $76.6 billion in 2021, which is 0.9% more than in 2020 and 33% more than in 2012.
In 2021, eight North Atlantic Treaty Organization members followed the Alliance's recommendation to spend at least 2% of GDP on their armed forces.
