Saudi Arabia recorded the world’s third-largest military spending in 2015, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

Riyadh’s military expenditure grew by 5.7 per cent to $87.2bn in 2015. Sipri says the figure would have declined during 2015 but for the additional $5.3bn cost of its military intervention in Yemen, adding that spending cuts are planned for 2016.

The world’s largest spender was the US, with $596bn, while China spent $215bn. In fourth place was Russia, with $66.4bn of spending. The UAE ranked 15^th, with an estimated $22.8bn of military spending.

World military expenditure rose by 1 per cent in 2015, which was the first increase in military spending since 2011. According to SIPRI, the uptick reflects continuing growth in Asia and Oceania, Central and Eastern Europe, and some Middle Eastern states, while the decline in spending in the West is also levelling off.

MEED reported in February that the London-based think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) estimates that defence budgets across the Middle East accounted for 6.5 per cent of regional GDP in 2015. That figure marks a slight rise on the 6 per cent figure for the year before, although the difference is at least partly explained by military budgets holding steady at a time of declining GDP for oil exporters.

In dollar terms, the amount actually fell, from $212bn in 2014 to $205bn last year, as a result of the fall in value of some of the region’s currencies against the dollar.