Azerbaijan cut military expenditure by 36% in 2016: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan cut its military expenditure by 36% in 2016 due to falling national oil revenues, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said on Monday, April 24.

Total world military expenditure rose to $1686 billion in 2016, an increase of 0.4% in real terms from 2015, according to new figures from SIPRI.

The United States remains the country with the highest annual military expenditure in the world. US military spending grew by 1.7% between 2015 and 2016 to $611 billion.

Military expenditure by China, which was the second largest spender in 2016, increased by 5.4% to $215 billion, a much lower rate of growth than in previous years.

Russia increased its spending by 5.9% in 2016 to $69.2 billion, making it the third largest spender.

World military spending in 2016 accounted for 2.2% of global GDP. Military spending as a share of GDP, was highest in the Middle East, with an average of 6.0% of GDP in 2016, while the lowest was in the Americas, with an average of 1.3 per cent of GDP.