Military expenditure falls - but Russia and China buck trend

 China and Russia were the major countries to buck the trend of a worldwide decrease in defence outlays, the first for 14 years. They increased spending 7.8 per cent (£7.5 billion) and 16 per cent (£8 billion) respectively last year, compared to 2011. Austerity measures in the US and Western and Central Europe, as well as in Australia, Canada and Japan, pushed global defence spending down by 0.5 per cent to £1.14 trillion in 2012, according to the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.The fall was partly the result of budget cuts associated with the global financial crisis, especially in the West, but was "substantially offset" by increased spending in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America."We are seeing what may be the beginning of a shift in the balance of world military spending from the rich western countries to emerging regions, as austerity policies and the drawdown in Afghanistan reduce spending in the former, while economic growth funds continuing increases elsewhere," said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, director of SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. Also significant was that the US share of world military spending fell below 40 per cent for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Washington's expenditure dropped six per cent in real terms to $682 billion (£444 billion) in 2012.