§ Mr. Meacherasked the Minister of State for Defence what has been the level of expenditure on defence as a percentage of gross national product by, respectively, the United Kingdom, United States of
DEFENCE EXPENDITURE AS A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS NATIONAL PROFIT AT FACTOR COST* 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 United Kingdom … 8.8 8.0 7.8 7.4 7.3 7.0 7.1 6.8 6.8 United States … 10.6 10.8 10.9 10.2 9.7 9.9 10.1 9.6 8.8 France … 9.2 8.7 7.9 7.9 7.6 7.3 7.1 6.5 6.3 Federal Republic of Germany … 4.2 4.8 3.4 5.1 4.7 4.6 5.5 6.0 5.4 Italy … 4.5 4.0 4.0 3.9 3.8 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.7 Japan … 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.1 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.0 Sweden … — — — — — — — 5.3 5.2 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 United Kingdom … 6.6 6.5 6.5 6.2 5.8 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.0† United States … 8.2 9.1 10.2 10.1 9.5 8.7 7.7 7.3 6.6 France … 6.1 5.9 5.9 5.5 5.1 4.7 4.5 4.2 4.2 Federal Republic of Germany … 5.0 4.7 5.0 4.1 4.1 3.7 3.8 4.0 3.9 Italy … 3.7 3.8 3.5 3.3 3.0 3.0 3.3 3.5 3.3 Japan … 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.9 1.0 Sweden … 4.4 4.2 3.9 3.9 3.8 3.4 3.4 3.6 NA. Note: Comparable figures for 1950 to 1955 and, in the case of Sweden, to 1962 are not readily available * The figures for the United Kingdom, United States, France Federal Republic of Germany and Italy are on the NATO definition of defence † Estimate