Report: Armenia’s military expenditure rose to $609 million last year

Military spending in Armenia totaled $609 million in 2018, a 33 percent increase as compared with 2017, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The report does not contain information on Azerbaijan and Georgia. Another Armenia’s neighbor Iran spent on military purposes $13.2 billion.

At $61.4 billion, Russian military spending was the sixth highest in the world in 2018. Its spending decreased by 3.5 per cent compared with 2017.

Military spending in Turkey increased by 24 per cent in 2018 to $19.0 billion, the highest annual percentage increase among the world’s top 15 military spenders.

Total world military expenditure rose to $1822 billion in 2018, representing an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2017. Total military expenditure by all 29 NATO members was $963 billion in 2018, which accounted for 53 per cent of world spending.

The largest absolute increase in spending in 2018 was by the USA ($27.8 billion), while the biggest decrease was by Saudi Arabia (–$4.6 billion).