Global arms spending rose to a new high last year. According to the annual report of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published Monday, nearly $ 2.24 trillion was invested in military spending worldwide in 2022 – an increase of 3.7 percent! Europe saw the strongest increase in more than 30 years.
Military spending worldwide rose for the eighth year in a row last year. By far the largest increase in spending, at 13 percent, was in Europe, according to SIPRI, largely attributable to Russia and Ukraine. However, military aid to Ukraine and concerns about an increased threat from Russia have also influenced the decisions of many other states, as well as tensions between China and Taiwan.
Russian spending increased by 9.2%
The largest spender remains by far the US with $877 billion, which is 39 percent of total global military spending and three times as much as China, the number two, with $292 billion. Russian military spending rose by about 9.2 percent to about $86.4 billion (nearly $78 billion), catapulting Vladimir Putin’s empire from fifth to third.
Figures released by Russia in late 2022 show that spending on “national defense” was already 34 percent higher than in the 2021 budget, suggesting that the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia much more than expected, said Lucie Béraud- Sudreau, director of the SIPRI program for military spending and defense production.
640 percent increase in Ukraine
Military spending in Ukraine reached $44 billion (nearly €40 billion) last year. At 640 percent, that was the highest one-year increase in a country’s military spending ever recorded in SIPRI data. As a result of this surge and the war-related damage to the Ukrainian economy, the military burden (military expenditure as a percentage of GDP) has increased from 3.2 percent in 2021 to 34 percent of GDP in 2022.
In Europe, several states significantly increased their military spending after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Other countries said they would increase spending to ten years. Some of the largest increases were recorded in Finland (36 percent), Lithuania (27 percent), Sweden (12 percent) and Poland (11 percent).
Inflation slowed real growth
According to SIPRI, the real increase in global military spending in 2022 continued to be held back by the effects of inflation, which reached decades-high levels in many countries. Adjusted for inflation, total spending worldwide rose by 6.5 percent, they say.
SIPRI also examined Western military aid to Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February a year ago. The Stockholm peace researchers estimate the total amount of financial military aid to Ukraine in the previous year to be at least $30 billion (€27 billion) – not counting actual arms shipments.
Source: Krone
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