Global Defense Spending Continues To Grow

Fenella McGerty, IISS: Global defence-spending on the up, despite economic crunch 

Notwithstanding the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent 3.5% contraction in global economic output in 2020, global defence-spending was resilient with real growth matching the higher rate achieved in 2019. However, even with a potential uplift in European spending, this increase could slow in 2021 as the defence budget of the United States flattens and growth in Asia-Pacific slows. 

Global defence spending reached US$1.83 trillion in 2020, a 3.9% annual uplift in real terms. As a proportion of GDP, global spending sharply increased from an average of 1.85% in 2019 to 2.08% in 2020 as military budgets were maintained, despite severe economic contractions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the series of lockdowns introduced around the world in response. Global defence spending growth has strengthened since 2018 but could slow in 2021, as the US defence budget is set to flatten and Asia–Pacific spending growth is expected to slow. The increase in the US and Chinese defence budgets accounted for almost two-thirds of the total increase in global spending in 2020: the US defence budget increased by 6.3% in 2020 in real terms, while China’s growth slowed slightly to 5.2% in 2020 from 5.9% in 2019. 

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WNU Editor: Global defense spending will definitely continue to grow. Even if there is a slowdown in US defense spending.

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