Global military spending rises to new high of $2240 billion; Ukraine records 640 per cent single-year rise in expenditure: report

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report 2023 noted that the total global military expenditure increased by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022.

Hyderabad: Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, a report has revealed that the global military spending has reached a new high of $2240 billion with Ukraine alone recording a whopping 640 per cent single-year rise in its military expenditure. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report 2023, the total global military expenditure increased by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022, to reach a new high of $2240 billion.

In Europe where the Ukraine war is going on, there has been the steepest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years owing to the war, the report said. Besides, the sharpest rise in spending (+13 per cent) was seen in Europe and was largely accounted for by Russian and Ukrainian spending, the report said. However, military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia strongly influenced many other states’ spending decisions, as did tensions in East Asia, it added.

As per the report, the military expenditure by states in Central and Western Europe totalled $345 billion in 2022. Significantly, spending by these states for the first time surpassed that in 1989, as the cold war was ending, and was 30 per cent higher than in 2013, it said. Several states significantly increased their military spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while others announced plans to raise spending levels over periods of up to a decade.

Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme Dr Diego Lopes da Silva said the invasion of Ukraine had an immediate impact on military spending decisions in Central and Western Europe. “This included multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments.

As a result, we can reasonably expect military expenditure in Central and Western Europe to keep rising in the years ahead,” he said. Accordoing to Lorenzo Scarazzato, Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, while the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022 certainly affected military spending decisions in 2022, concerns about Russian aggression have been building for much longer.

“Many former Eastern bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year when Russia annexed Crimea,” Scarazzato said. According to the SIPRI report, Russian military spending grew by an estimated 9.2 per cent in 2022, to around $86.4 billion. This was equivalent to 4.1 per cent of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, up from 3.7 per cent of GDP in 2021. according to the report, the spending on national defence, the largest component of Russian military expenditure, was already 34 per cent higher, in nominal terms, than in budgetary plans drawn up in 2021.

The report said that the three largest spenders in 2022—the United States, China and Russia—accounted for 56 per cent of the world total. It said that the world military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2240 billion. As for Ukraine, the country’s military spending reached $44.0 billion in 2022 accounting for 640 per cent, the highest single-year increase in a country’s military expenditure ever recorded in SIPRI data.

As a result of the increase and the war-related damage to Ukraine’s economy, the military burden (military spending as a share of GDP) shot up to 34 per cent of GDP in 2022, from 3.2 per cent in 2021, the report said. The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender. US military spending reached $877 billion in 2022, which was 39 per cent of total global military spending and three times more than the amount spent by China, the world’s second largest spender.

The 0.7 per cent 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, said the SIPRI report. Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Senior Researcher said the increase in the USA’s military spending in 2022 was largely accounted for by the unprecedented level of financial military aid it provided to Ukraine.

He said that given the scale of US spending, even a minor increase in percentage terms has a significant impact on the level of global military expenditure. In 2022 the USA allocated $295 billion to military operations and maintenance, $264 billion to procurement and research and development, and $167 billion to military personnel, the SIPRI report said.

According to the SIPRI report, the combined military expenditure of countries in Asia and Oceania was $575 billion, which was 2.7 per cent more than in 2021 and 45 per cent more than in 2013, continuing an uninterrupted upward trend dating back to at least 1989. China remained the world’s second largest military spender, allocating an estimated $292 billion in 2022, which was 4.2 per cent more than in 2021 and 63 per cent more than in 2013.

China’s military expenditure has increased for 28 consecutive years. Likewise, Japan’s military spending increased by 5.9 per cent between 2021 and 2022, reaching $46.0 billion, or 1.1 per cent of GDP. This was the highest level of Japanese military spending since 1960. A new national security strategy published in 2022 sets out ambitious plans to increase Japan’s military capability over the coming decade in response to perceived growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.