HE military spending In 2022 Europe returned to dimensions not seen after the Cold War, driven by conflict in UkraineAccording to a report published this Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Europe was the continent with the highest increase in arms purchases compared to the previous year, 13%With tensions in East Asia escalating, it contributed to world spending reaching a record level of $2.2 trillion (€2 trillion), 3.7% more year-on-year in real terms (twice excluding inflation), and 2.2% equivalent. global gross domestic product (GDP).
The report is available in Central and Western Europe. 345,000 million dollars (315,000 million euros) was spent, It is 30% more than in 2013, a figure for the first time exceeding 1989, which coincided with the end of the Cold War.
Finland (36% more), Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%) and Poland (11%) SIPRI emphasizes that it has experienced the most significant increases in the military budget and that the plans initiated by several countries show that spending in the region will continue to increase in the future.
“While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 will certainly affect spending decisions in 2022, concerns over Russian aggression were raising long before that. Many former Eastern Bloc countries have doubled their military spending since 2014.”writes this prestigious institute.
Russia, which ranks third in the world list, increased its military investment by 9.2% to 86,400 million (78,860 million euros), or 4.1% of its GDP. Ukraine experienced a record 640% increase34% of its GDP, excluding donations from other countries.
Despite the increases recorded in Europe and other regions, The United States continues to dominate the world undisputed: It spent $877,000 million (880,469 million euros), 39% of the total, and three times more than the second-ranked China.
This figure represents an increase of 0.7% compared to 2021, that it would have been “much higher” had the country not experienced the highest inflation since 1981 and was fueled by “unprecedented” military aid to Ukraine.
19,900 million allocated to Ukraine by the US last year The largest military aid to a country since the Cold War, It explains SIPRI, but only represents 2.3% of total US military spending.
India with 6% and Saudi Arabia with 16%, They round out the top five in annual spending, followed by the UK, Germany, France, South Korea and Japan, with Ukraine eleventh, twenty-five places higher than in 2021.
Spain dropped one place to sixteenthWith expenses of 20,300 million (18,500 million euros), 7.3% more than in 2021, just ahead of Brazil.
The report also draws attention to the increase recorded. Asia and Oceania administered by China and Japanlast year, with increases of 4.2% and 1.1% respectively, which is the second highest rate since 1960 in the latter case.
There was a 6.2% decrease in Central America and the Caribbean. A decrease of almost ten points in Mexico’s military spending, In South America, in this case, the decline in spending was 6.1% due to the drop in Brazilian investment. AND