World spends less on military - SIPRI
SWEDEN: The world spent less on weapons and military services in 2012
than the year before, the first annual drop since 1998, a Swedish think
tank said on Monday. But despite the overall decrease, driven mainly by
budget cuts in the Western countries, China and Russia both boosted
spending last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI) said.
"We are seeing what may be the beginning of a shift in the balance of
world military spending from the rich Western countries to emerging
regions," said Sam Perlo-Freeman, director of SIPRI's Military
Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
"Austerity policies and the drawdown in Afghanistan reduce spending
in the former, while economic growth funds continuing increases
elsewhere."
Excluding inflation, world military expenditure fell 0.5 percent to
$1.75 trillion (1.33 trillion euros) in 2012 from 2011, according to
SIPRI's data.
However, emerging power China increased its spending by 7.8 percent,
while Russia's spending was up by 16 percent. In traditional
high-tension regions, spending also increased, with the Middle East
seeing a rise of 8.4 percent last year.
Asia, which has seen growing friction in areas such as the South
China Sea, also recorded an overall rise in spending of 3.3 percent last
year.
US military spending last year dropped by six percent, falling below
40 percent of the global total for the first time since the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
The US decrease was mainly a result of reduced war spending, SIPRI
said, adding that it expected the trend to continue in 2013.
"All the indications are that world military spending is likely to
keep falling for the next two to three years -- at least until NATO
completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of 2014," said
Perlo-Freeman.
"However, spending in emerging regions will probably go on rising, so
the world total will probably bottom out after that."
Despite the new trends, at $682 billion (520 billion euro), US
military spending is still more than four times larger than that of
number two in the list, China, estimated by SIPRI at $166 billion (127
billion euro).
AFP
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