NATO collects defence expenditure data from Allies on a regular basis and presents aggregates and subsets of this information.
According to the organisation, each Ally’s Ministry of Defence reports current and estimated future defence expenditure according to an agreed definition of defence expenditure.
“The amounts represent payments by a national government actually made, or to be made, during the course of the fiscal year to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or of the Alliance. In the figures and tables that follow, NATO also uses economic and demographic information available from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission (DG-ECFIN), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In view of differences between both these sources and national GDP forecasts, and also the definition of NATO defence expenditure and national definitions, the figures shown in this report may diverge considerably from those which are quoted by media, published by national authorities or given in national budgets. Equipment expenditure includes expenditure on major equipment as well as on research and development devoted to major equipment. Personnel expenditure includes pensions paid to retirees.”
The cut-off date for information used in this report was the 21st of November 2019. Figures for 2019 are estimates.
Germany, no 1 economic power in Europe, France no 2 economic power in Europe and yet both Countries are well short on their required NATO 2% of GDP defence spending……..why is that??
2% of gdp is a treaty obligation though. A country”s word is worth nothing if they sign a treaty and ignore the obligation they agreed to. Any country that isn’t willing to pay the bare minimum they are required to do as a NATO member should just be honest about where they stand and pull out of NATO so other members, particularly the US, don’t have to bother with being obliged to defend deadbeat nations unwilling to enact their side of the bargain.
THe above table means nothing to us unless translated into pounds and i would have thought this obvious to who ever published them, in fact Defence news could have done this. Ho Hum
More to the point, it is meaningless unless converted into any single currency…..
The UK budget is about 46 Billion pounds; a pound is about $1.36. Canada spends about 30 billion $C; a Canadian dollar is less than a US dollar. Germany spends about 48 billion Euros; a Euro is less than a pound or a dollar.
Correction: a Euro is about 10 per cent more than a USD
I see the Times this morning are saying BoJo is taking aim at he MoD for wasting cash. Funny how defence is the only area where cash is wasted not NHS, DiFD etc.
Well Johnston has ostensibly broken the sacred Tory ideology of slashing public expenditure at every opportunity. Of course, that was an election wheeze, normal service will be resumed as soon as.
To pay for more policemen and nurses, the money will need to be cut from some other department’s budget and defence is, as always with the gullible public, the first port of call. Dominic Cummings has already had an ill-informed go at the carriers in his blog, now the party mouthpiece is stirring the pot about the wasteful MOD. This is how Cummings works, he poisons the well with half-truths, imaginative fake news (remember the 1m or whatevet Turkish immigrants he invented in 2016!) and twisted logic. Defence is I fear in for a rough ride, because all the other departments have already been raided over the last 9 years and the public is seeing the stark resuits, though still blaming austerity rather than deliberate cuts for ideological reasons.
I agree, it amazes me how much is wasted by Gov Depts within the UK, but time and again regardless of the foolishness , complacency and short sightedness of this , they raid the Defence Budget by accusing the armed forces and MOD of overspend, when in fact it is the Gov’s fault, and all administrations since 1990 hold the blame for this, in not funding the armed forces properly in the first place.