OREANDA-NEWSRussia dropped out of the top five defense spending countries, according to experts from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual report (.pdf). The figure in 2018 decreased by 3.5%, to $ 61.4 billion.

“Russia did not hit the top five for the first time since 2006. The countries with the highest spending were the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, India and France, which together accounted for 60% of all global military spending, ”the study says. US heads top with $ 649 billion. In general, last year $ 1.8 trillion was spent on military spending in the world. This is the maximum amount since 1988, when SIPRI began to keep records of defense spending. The top 15 countries spent $ 1.47 trillion, representing 81% of global military spending. Moscow’s defense spending in 2017 fell immediately by 20% ($ 13.9 billion) to $ 66.3 billion. Thus, the share of military spending in the country's GDP fell from 5.5% to 4.3%. 

Earlier, Russia's arms costs declined in 2017 by 20% in dollar terms, which in absolute terms was the most significant decline in the world. This is stated in the new report of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The reduction of Moscow’s weapons costs is associated both with planned reductions in this area and with the fall of the ruble exchange rate. On the whole, defense spending in the world increased by 2.2% over the year. The main contributions were made by China, Saudi Arabia, India and other Asian countries. The most active in relative terms militarized were the newcomers of the European Union bordering on Russia. Romania, for example, has increased the military budget by 50%.

India also seriously increased its military spending (it ousted France from fifth place from $ 63.9 billion) and Brazil (rose from 13th to 11th place from $ 29.3 billion). In addition to the already mentioned countries and France, the top ten also includes the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and South Korea, whose positions in the ranking have not changed since 2016. Their military budget increment remained within the world average (about 2%).