Finland’s military spending soars 36% as global defence budgets hit Cold War levels

As it joins Nato, Finland records its highest year-on-year increase in military spending since 1962

Global military expenditure rose to a record high last year as Russia's war in Ukraine prompted European nations to invest the kinds of figures in their defence capabilities not seen since the end of the Cold War, according to a new report.

Researchers from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) estimate that last year’s total global military spending rose by 3.7 per cent in real terms to $2.24 trillion.

Finland, which formally joined Nato earlier this month and shares a border with Russia, recorded the most dramatic spending boost of 36 per cent following a purchase of F-35 fighter jets.

This was Finland’s highest year-on-year increase in military spending since 1962, the report stated.

European military spending shot up 13 per cent last year, primarily due to the war in the neighbourhood, but many countries across the continent are also ramping up their defence budgets in anticipation of wider and ongoing tensions, the report said.

Other European nations such as Lithuania, Sweden and Polan saw increases in their defence budgets of 27 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

According to the report, about half the annual increase was due to Ukraine’s ballooning military budget.

"This included multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments," Sipri senior researcher Diego Lopes da Silva said. "As a result, we can reasonably expect military expenditure in Central and Western Europe to keep rising in the years ahead."

The defence budget of existing Nato members increased by 0.9 per cent from 2021, as expenditure declined in countries including Italy, Turkey and Greece.

Britain had the highest military spending in Central and Western Europe at $68.5bn, of which an estimated $2.5bn were financial aid to Ukraine.

Ukraine's military spending rose 640 per cent in 2022, the largest annual increase recorded in Sipri data going back to 1949, with that total not including the vast amounts of financial military aid provided by the West.

The US remains the largest spender in the world, and military aid to Ukraine from Washington accounted for an estimated 2.3 per cent of total US military spending in 2022.

Russia's military spending grew by an estimated 9.2 per cent last year, however, figures were "highly uncertain given the increasing opaqueness of financial authorities" since its war in Ukraine in February 2022 began, the report said.

“The difference between Russia’s budgetary plans and its actual military spending in 2022 suggests the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia far more than it anticipated,” said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of Sipri’s military expenditure and arms production programme.

India’s military spending of $81.4bn was the fourth highest in the world, and saw a 6 per cent hike compared to 2021.

Saudi Arabia increased its expenditure by an estimated 16 per cent to become the fifth largest spender globally. Qatar, which has dramatically expanded its armed forces amid a Gulf crisis that saw it blockaded by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, boosted spending by 27 per cent.

China, the world's second-largest spender, allocated an estimated $292bn to its defence budget last year – 4.2 per cent up on 2021. China’s military expenditure has now increased for 28 consecutive years, the report said.