Military spending hit record high last year

World military spending reached a record high of 2.4 trillion dollars last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday. This was impacted by increased military spending in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an increase of 3.7% year-on-year.

Impacted by the war in Ukraine, Europe’s military spending rose 13% compared to last year, the sharpest increase since the end of the Cold War in 1989. Europe had maintained single digit military spending growth since the fall of the Berlin Wall until last year. SIPRI said that many countries have announced that they will be increasing military spending for the next 10 years.

Excluding Ukraine, which saw the highest growth at 640%, the country with the highest increase in expenditure was Finland at 36%. Bloomberg reported that Finland had procured several units of F-35 from the U.S., which contributed to the country’s joining to NATO. Military spending also increased in Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%), and Poland.

The highest spending was made by the U.S. (877 billion dollars), accounting for 39% of total global spending, followed by China, Russia, India, and Saudi Arabia. Japan’s military spending stood at 46 billion dollars, the highest since 1960.

Military spending in Korea in 2022 was 46.4 billion dollars, which declined by 2.5% from last year and reversing the growth that had sustained for 22 years. According to SIPRI, the nominal growth rate that did not consider inflation was 2.9%. Korea’s military spending last year was 9th largest in the world last year, which was a ranking higher than 2021, switching places with Japan.


Jeong-Soo Hong hong@donga.com