World spending on defense for the first time in 15 years fell by $1.75 trillion in 2012, which marked a 0.5-percent reduction in comparison with 2011, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The share of the U.S. has fallen below the level of 40 percent for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia and China entered the top three of the countries that increased their military spending.
The research of the institute is based on public expenditure on the maintenance of armed forces, namely, military exercises, salary or remuneration for troops, as well as other employee benefits, operating costs, procurement of weapons and equipment, military construction, research and development works, administrative costs, etc. The total military spending of the world in 2012 in comparable prices made up 1.753 trillion dollars, which was 2.5 per cent of global GDP.
The Institute has also published the list of 15 countries with largest military budgets. The first place still belongs to the United States with its 682 billion dollars, accounting for 4.4 percent of GDP. The second place is taken by China with $166 billion (2 percent of GDP), and the third place - by the Russian Federation with $90.7 billion (4.4 per cent). The statistics on the U.S. is official. Then comes the United Kingdom - $60.8 (2.5) and Japan - $59.3 (1.0). The top five accounts for 60 percent of world military spending - 1.06 trillion dollars.
Fifteen heavyweights close the list (in billions of dollars): France (58.9), Saudi Arabia (56.7), India (46.1), Germany (45.8), Italy (34.0), Brazil (33.1), South Korea (31.7), Australia (26.2), Canada (22.5) and Turkey (18.2). Fifteen countries provide 82 percent of global military spending (1.43 trillion dollars). The United States continues to take the lead in military spending in absolute terms. The country spends more on defense than the following ten countries combined. Although in 2012, the U.S. military budget has decreased by 6 percent, the new index marked a 69 percent increase vs. the indexes of 2001 - the year that became the beginning of the "global war on terrorism," SIPRI experts wrote.
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