HL Deb 26 January 1982 vol 426 cc944-6WA
Lord Brockway

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What percentage of their gross national product is spent on " defence " by each of the 15 members of NATO and what are the similar percentages of each of the Warsaw Pact powers.

Viscount Trenchard

NATO calculates defence expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product. The provisional figures for 1981 are as follows:

Country $ GDP spent on defence
Greece 5.9
USA 5.8
UK 5.0
Turkey 4.8
France 4.2
Portugal 3.6
Germany 3.4
Belguim 3.3
Netherlands 3.2
Norway 2.9
Italy 2.5
Canada 1.8
Luxembourg 1.3

The figure for Iceland is negligible; information for Denmark is not available.

No reliable defence expenditure figures are published by the Warsaw Pact countries. It is however estimated that the USSR, which accounts for the majority of Warsaw Pact defence spending, devotes some 12–14 per cent. of GNP to defence. The difference between GDP and GNP is not thought to be significant for the purpose of these comparisons.

House adjourned at three minutes past nine o'clock.