MOSCOW – Global military expenditure increased by 3.7% last year and reached a new record high of US$2.24 trillion (RM9.9 trillion), with the three largest spenders being the US, China and Russia, according to new data published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
“World military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of US$2,240 billion. By far the sharpest rise in spending (+13%) was seen in Europe,” reported Sputnik quoting Sipri.
The US remains the world’s biggest military spender with its military expenditure having reached US$877 billion last year, which is 39% of total global military spending.
“The 0.7% real-terms increase in US spending in 2022 would have been even greater had it not been for the highest levels of inflation since 1981,” Sipri said.
China was the world’s second largest military spender in 2022, having spent US$292 billion, or 4.2% more than in 2021, according to Sipri.
“Russian military spending grew by an estimated 9.2% in 2022, to around US$86.4 billion. This was equivalent to 4.1% of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, up from 3.7% of GDP in 2021,” Sipri said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military spending saw the highest single-year increase in a country’s military expenditure ever recorded in Sipri data, reaching US$44.0 billion in 2022, which was a 640% increase.
“US financial military aid to Ukraine totalled US$19.9 billion in 2022,” Sipri said, adding that this was “the largest amount of military aid given by any country to a single beneficiary in any year since the Cold War.”
The aid that Washington allocated to Kiev last year was 2.3% of total US military spending. – Bernama, April 24, 2023
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