Saudi Arabia remains the biggest military spender in the Middle East (Picture credit: US DoD)
Military expenditure in the Middle East reached an estimated $243 billion in 2024, an increase of 15 per cent from 2023 and of 19 per cent from 2015. With estimated spending of $80.3 billion in 2024, Saudi Arabia remained the...
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Military expenditure in the Middle East reached an estimated $243 billion in 2024, an increase of 15 per cent from 2023 and of 19 per cent from 2015.
With estimated spending of $80.3 billion in 2024, Saudi Arabia remained the biggest military spender in the Middle East and seventh largest globally, says a Stockholm international Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report.
Saudi Arabia spending was 1.5 per cent higher than in 2023 but 20 per cent lower than in 2015 when its oil revenues peaked. Israel’s military expenditure grew by 65 per cent in 2024 to reach $46.5 billion, the largest year-on-year increase in Israeli spending since the Six-Day War in 1967.
Israel’s military expenditure went up by 135 per cent over the decade from 2015–24, says the report. Military spending as a share of GDP rose from 5.4 per cent in 2023 to 8.8 per cent in 2024, giving Israel the second highest military burden in the world behind Ukraine. The escalation of conflict with Hezbollah in October 2024, on top of the ongoing war in Gaza, led to a significant increase in military spending: from $37.1 billion in the initial budget for 2024 to a total of $45.6 billion by the end of December 2024, based on the figures in Israel’s accumulated monthly budgets (which do not include all the categories of military spending used for SIPRI’s total estimate). Israel spent $5.7 billion on the military in December 2024 alone.
Lebanon’s military spending rose by 58 per cent in 2024 to $635 million against the backdrop of incursions by Israel into southern Lebanon during the year. This ended a trend of relatively low levels of spending since 2021 connected to the economic crisis and political turmoil affecting the country.
At $7.9 billion, Iran’s military spending in 2024 was 10 per cent lower than in 2023 but still 21 per cent higher than in 2015. The year-on-year decrease was mainly due to the effects of persistently high inflation on Iranian spending, partly stemming from US economic sanctions on Iran, which have had an impact on oil exports, Iran’s main source of export revenue. The sanctions, which were expanded in 2024, aim to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme and to disrupt Iranian support for regional armed groups, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
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