Spike in global military spending matches Cold-war era: Report
A spike in global military spending in 2024 matches the spending in the Cold War era (1945-1991), says an international report released on Monday.
It said: “World military expenditure rose to $2718 billion in 2024, meaning that spending has increased every year for a full decade”. It increased by 37 per cent between 2015 and 2024.
The report titled “Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024” released in the early hours on Monday said: “The rise in spending at 9.4 per cent during 2024 was the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988 – or the period of the Cold War when the US and Soviet Union were leading the two dominating blocs.”
The average military expenditure as a share of government expenditure rose to 7.1 per cent in 2024. The world military spending on a per person basis was the highest since 1990, and now stood at $334, said the report.
The report, released annually, is produced by Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). SIPRI tracks military spending and arms sales globally and produces an annual report.
India with $ 86.1 billion spend was at the fifth spot behind the US ( $997 billion), China ( $ 314 billion) Russia ( $ 149 billion) and Germany ( $ 88 billion).
The report attributed the growth to spending increases in Europe, largely driven by the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, and in the Middle East, driven by the war in Gaza and wider regional conflicts.
It specifies the example of Germany’s military expenditure that rose for the third consecutive year to reach $88.5 billion, or 1.9 per cent of GDP, making it the fourth largest spender globally and the biggest in Central and Western Europe for the first time since reunification in 1989.
Germany’s military spending went up by 28 per cent compared with 2023 and by 89 per cent compared with 2015.
During 2024, the German parliament approved new arms procurement and military research and development partly financed by this fund. Germany provided $7.7 billion in financial military aid to Ukraine in 2024, the second highest donation to Ukraine over the year after the US.
