Report says arms sales increased by 5% in 2018

On December 9, 2019, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published a report according to which arms sales rose by 5% through out the world in 2018.

Key findings of the report

The report said that the turn over of 100 biggest arms manufacturers came to 420 billion USD. Amongst arms manufacturers, US manufacturers accounted for 59% of global weapon market. Next to the US, Russia ranked second in arms production contributing 8.6% of the weapon market. UK and France ranked third and fourth contributing 8.4% and 5.5% respectively.

The study did not include China as there was insufficient data. However, the report said that China has spent 1.9% of gross domestic product on defence every year since 2013.

Findings on S-400

The increase in sales of weapons continued to grow particularly in the exports of S-400 air defense system. Turkey was the largest buyer of S-400 missiles in spite of US threat of sanctions. Two arms industries of Turkey are in the top 100 with an annual turn over of 2.8 billion USD.

Arms Exports

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2019