India’s military expenditure grew around 8.5 per cent in 2016, making it the world’s fifth largest spender at $55.9 billion, figures released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) revealed.
Key Facts
- The US remains the world’s largest military spender registering a growth of 1.7 per cent between 2015 and 2016 to $611 billion.
- China is second $215 billion an increase of 5.4 per cent, Russia increased its spending by 5.9 per cent to $69.2 billion at third largest spender, Saudi Arabia, the third largest spender in 2015, dropped to the fourth position in 2016 with its spending dropping by 30 per cent in 2016 to $63.7 billion.
- Four others in the top 15 spenders include China, Japan, South Korea, Australia.
- Last year’s global military spending accounted for 2.2 per cent of the worldwide GDP.
- In Asia and Oceania, military expenditure rose by 4.6 per cent in 2016.
- Pakistan does not figure in the top 15 spenders, and spent $9.93 billion.
Source : ET
General Fact