Middle East Governments Are Cutting Their Military Budgets Even As Wars Rage Around The Region: "Military spending in the Middle East has fallen over the past year, despite a string of ongoing conflicts across the region, including those in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
According to data published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on February 14, total spending across the region fell to $167bn in 2017, down 4% from $174bn the year before. Measured by a number of other metrics, the fall was even faster. Defence spending on a per capita basis was down 5% to $388 while spending as a percentage of the region’s GDP dropped from 5.73% of GDP in 2016 to 5.4% last year.
These figures don’t capture all the countries in the region – in its Military Balance 2018 report, IISS says it has no reliable information for the defence budgets of a number of likely high-spending countries including Qatar and the U.A.E. However, the direction of travel for the region as a whole is fairly clear." Read More
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