The world’s military spending has risen to its highest ever level, according to new data from a top international monitoring organisation – with European countries increasing their budgets faster than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ednews reports citing Euronews.
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the European scramble to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has helped push total global military expenditure to an all-time yearly high of $2240 billion (€2035 billion).
Western and Central European states spent some $345 billion (€313 billion) on their military forces last year, according to SIPRI’s annual Trends in World Military Expenditure report, released Monday.
In raw numerical terms, the region’s biggest overall spender was the UK, which allocated $68.5 billion (€62.24 billion) to its military budget – though only $3.1 billion (€2.82 billion) went into financial military aid for Ukraine.
But some of Europe’s sharpest budget increases were seen in countries most geographically exposed to Russia. Incoming NATO members Finland and Sweden dialled up their spending dramatically at 36% and 12% respectively.