Swedish think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has just released country rankings based on world military spending and it shows India has moved from 7th place in 2015 to 5th place in 2016.
This means that India is now the fifth largest defense spender in the world.
India’s military expenditure grew around 8.5 per cent in 2016, making it the world’s fifth largest spender at $55.9 billion.
Here are other findings of the report:
- The US remains the world’s largest military spender registering a growth of 1.7 per cent between 2015 and 2016 to $611 billion.
- Four others in the top 15 spenders include China, Japan, South Korea, Australia.
- China is second on the list spending $215 billion, an increase of 5.4 per cent. However, the growth rate was “much lower” than in the previous years, the SIPRI report said.
- Russia increased its spending by 5.9 per cent to $69.2 billion, making it the 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, despite its continued involvement in regional wars.
- Pakistan does not figure in the top 15 spenders and spent $9.93 billion.
You can read the SIPRI report here.