Despite the pandemic and its economic consequences, more money was once again spent on the military, defense and armament worldwide in 2020.
Global military spending rose by 2.6 percent in 2020 to an estimated 1.98 trillion dollars (around 1.65 trillion euros), as the Stockholm peace research institute SIPRI announced today. This is a new high since comparable estimates began in 1988.
Partial declines made up by the USA
According to SIPRI, some states such as Chile and South Korea have reallocated parts of their military budgets to fighting pandemics, and others such as Brazil and Russia spent significantly less than originally budgeted for 2020. However, this was more than offset by increases such as those in the USA at 4.4 percent – the United States alone accounts for 39 percent of global military spending.
As in the previous year, the four largest buyers in 2020 were the United States, China, India and Russia. Great Britain moved into fifth place because Saudi Arabia cut its spending by ten percent compared to the previous year. Together, these „Big Five“ accounted for 62 percent of all global expenditure on war material.
May have greater impact in 2021
„We can say with some certainty that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on global military spending in 2020,“ said SIPRI researcher Diego Lopes da Silva. It remains to be seen whether the countries will maintain this level of expenditure in the course of a second year of the pandemic. His institute pointed out, however, that the estimates this time CoV-related are subject to greater uncertainty than usual.
