Saudi Arabia Top on Military Expenditure in Middle East
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Saudi Arabia increased its military spending by 14 percent last year, making its budget now the fourth largest in the world, according to data published by a Swedish institute.
Middle Eastern nations increased their military expenditure by billions of dollars last year, with Saudi Arabia's budget now the fourth largest in the world, according to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The Kingdom spent $67bln last year, a 14 percent increase on 2012, meaning it leapfrogged the UK, Japan and France in budget terms.
Saudi military spending has more than doubled in 10 years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research institute's report, which was released on Monday. It is still, however, dwarfed by the three nations above it, with Russia spending $87.8bln, China $188bln and the US spending $640bln.
Spending in the Middle East overall increased by 4 percent in 2013 to an estimated $150b. Bahrain's increased by 26 percent, while Iraq's expenditure increased 27 percent, according to SIPRI.
Military spending data for Iran, Qatar, Syria and the UAE was not available for 2013, however, Al Jazeera reported.
Sam Perlo-Freeman, the director of SIPRI’s military expenditure programme, said the missing data meant the estimated Middle East total was "highly uncertain".
"This reflects the general opacity of military spending in the region, and even where data is available it may not cover all military spending," he said.
Total world military spending was $1.75 trillion - down 1.9 percent on the previous year and mainly due to a 7.8 percent cut in US expenditure, and austerity measures in Europe. Nevertheless, the US still accounted for 37 percent of all military spending, according to the institute.