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World military spending: Europe down, Middle East up
AFP
STOCKHOLM
Petroleumworld.com 06 13 06Record overall military spending in 2005 masked divergent trends across the globe, with expenditure on the rise in the US and the Middle East but on the decline in Europe, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday.
The United States remained the biggest worldwide spender with 48 percent of the 1.118 trillion dollar (885 billion euros) pie and alone accounted for 80 percent of the 33-billion-dollar increase in global spending, it said in its annual report.
But the Middle East was the region with the highest relative spending increase, mostly due to a massive increase in Saudi Arabia's defence budget.
Total military spending numbers for the region would have been even higher if Iraq and Qatar had not been excluded because of inconsistent data, SIPRI said.
Europe was the only region with a decrease in military spending, by 1.7 percent, especially because of western European spending cuts.
The biggest falls were recorded in Italy and Britain, SIPRI said.
Worldwide military spending represented 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005, or 173 dollars per capita.
In China, spending was 31.20 dollars per capita, and in India, 18.50 dollars.
This compares to 1,604 dollars of military spending for each American, and 1,430 for each Israeli, SIPRI said.
The 15 biggest spenders accounted for 84 percent of all expenditure. They were, in declining order, the United States, Britain, France, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Spain and Israel.
Military expenditure in Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 7.2 percent in 2005, mostly driven by three big spenders Brazil, Chile and Colombia, who together account for three-quarters of military spending in the region.
Chile's spending was boosted by rising revenues from copper, helping the country's military forces to finance an ongoing modernisation programme.
The pace of the programme means that Chile could by 2010 become the region's first country to possess NATO-standard military forces, SIPRI said.
Chile's increased spending has raised concerns in neighbouring Peru, prompting the creation of an acquisition, modernisation and repair fund for that country's armed forces.
In Venezuela rising government revenues, from oil, have also translated into increased military spending, which saw the region's greatest increase after those of Brazil and Chile.
Despite large procurement deals by Chile and Venezuela "there is little sign of the emergence of competitive arms acquisitions in the region", SIPRI said.
Military spending in Central America, where Mexico accounts for 85 percent of the total, was stable between 2004 and 2005, although figures were distorted by the absence of reliable data from Cuba.
AFP 12 1625 GMT 06 06
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