Saudi Arabia’s $46.3 bln defense budget ranks highest in region

Saudi Arabia’s estimated $46.3 billion defense budget ranked the highest in the Middle East in 2015, according to an annual report by IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets.

According to the report, the fastest growing defense budgets in the region in 2015 were Iran, Tunisia, and Israel.

While spending in the Middle East has flattened, global spending is expected to trend upwards from $1.65 trillion in 2015 to $1.68 trillion in 2016, “as global economic growth accelerates and Western markets respond to heightened security concerns,” the report added.

Between 2012 and 2014, the Middle East was the fastest growing region globally; but 2015 saw the first defense spending cuts in a decade as oil prices, which have more than halved, continued to decline.

Eastern Europe replaced the Middle East as the fastest growing region globally; a position it held for the last three years.

This year, the Middle East and North Africa regions held three of the fastest growing defense budgets globally; but boasted six of the ten fastest in 2014.

“We saw the first marginal cuts in 2015, but, those cuts are now expected to deepen in 2016 as states are forced into pursuing fiscal consolidation with more vigour,” said Craig Caffrey, principal analyst at IHS.

However, a major downturn is unlikely, as regional tension should keep defense spending at around $170 billion in the near future.