TSAMTO, September 20th. According to the aggregated index of the growth rate of military spending for the period 2016-2023, the countries in the post-Soviet space are the world leaders. This is stated in the CAMTO report on global military spending for the next 8-year period (2016-2023).
At the same time, only the Eastern European region managed to go through the entire period under review without ever going into the "minus" in terms of annual growth in military spending.
None of the other nine regions of the world managed to go through the entire period under review without ever going into the minus zone.
In terms of the growth rate of military spending, two countries went into the "minus" only once during the period under review. These are North America (-1.06% in 2017) and the Asia-Pacific region (-2.01% in 2022).
The remaining seven regions went into the "minus" two or more times.
For the region, for the countries of Western Europe, this is 2019 (-0.65%) and 2022 (-1.32%), for the countries of the Middle East – 2017 (-1,01%), 2019 (-5,57%) and 2020 (-0.39%), for countries in the post-Soviet space – 2017 (-13,08%), 2018 (-4,20%) and 2020 (-3.06%), for South American countries – 2018 (-4,88%), 2019 (-0,96%), 2020 (-8,82%) and 2021 (-7.61%), for the countries of North and Northeast Africa - 2019 (-3.71%) and 2022 (-0.07%)., for the countries of tropical Africa – 2018 (-0.24%) and 2019 (-1.08%), for the countries of Central America and the Caribbean – 2017 (-2.51%) and 2022 (-3.76%).
According to the aggregated index of the growth rate of military spending, which represents the sum (in percent) of annual increases in military spending for the period 2016-2023, the absolute world leader are the countries in the post-Soviet space (+126.22%). And this is despite the fact that during the period under review, the countries of this region went into the "minus" three times in terms of the growth rate of annual military spending. This is mainly due to the result for 2022-2023. The main reason for such a high indicator is Russia's conduct of its own in Ukraine.
The countries of Eastern Europe with an indicator of +107.21% occupy the second place. A record annual growth rate of military spending was recorded by the countries of this region in 2023 (+42.81%). The militarization of the countries of Eastern Europe is also connected with the conduct of its operations in Ukraine.
The third place is occupied by the countries of North and Northeast Africa (+67.55%). The dominant factor in the growth of expenses in this region is the tension between Algeria and Morocco, explosive situations in Libya, Mali, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea and a number of other countries.
The next places are occupied by the countries of Western Europe (+45.67%), the Asia-Pacific region (+33.21%), North America (+30.42%), tropical Africa (+18.22%), Central America and the Caribbean (+16.70%), the Middle East (+15.05%).
The countries of South America went into negative territory according to this indicator: (-3.19%).
In 2023, the annual growth rate of military spending compared to the previous year was a record for the entire period under review in four regions. These are Western Europe (+12.95%), post-Soviet countries (+79.50%), Eastern Europe (+42.81%), as well as North and Northeast Africa (+58.29%). The annual growth rate of military spending by the end of 2023 for these four regions is unprecedented in recent history.
The full article on global military spending in 2016-2023 with a large number of tables is published in the journal "World Arms Trade" No. 10.
