§ Mr. SalmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish what information he has regarding the defence budgets of all Organisation for Economic 581W Co-operation and Development member states; and if he will show for each their defence budgets (a) as a percentage of gross domestic product, (b) as a percentage of total Government expenditure and (c) in pound sterling.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe Department does not hold information on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states which are not members of NATO. For NATO nations, the information requested at(a) and (c) is given in the following table. The information requested at (b) is not reported by member nations to NATO and is therefore not readily available.
Country Defence expenditure as percentage of gross domestic product Defence expenditure in £ million sterling United States of America 6.1 162,381 France 3.8 20,181 Federal Republic of Germany 3.0 19,877 United Kingdom 4.3 19,621 Italy 2.4 10,761 Canada 2.1 5,567 Netherlands 3.0 3,790 Spain 2.2 4,113 Belgium 2.9 2,369 Greece 6.6 1,947 Turkey 4.2 1,426 Norway 3.3 1,640 Denmark 2.2 1,313 Portugal 3.1 709 Luxembourg 1.3 46 Note: These figures, which are provisional, have been compiled for the calendar year 1988 from NATO sources except those for the United Kingdom, which have been compiled from national sources. Defence expenditure is given in £ million sterling at 1988 average market exchange rates, which do not necessarily reflect the relative purchasing power of individual currencies and so are not a complete guide to comparative resource allocation.