§ Mr. Greenwayasked the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has as to the percentage of gross national product spent on defence by Russia and Warsaw pact countries, in comparable terms to that spent by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and other Western countries; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StanleyNo reliable defence expenditure figures are published by Warsaw Pact countries. As stated in annex A to volume I of the "Statement on the Defence 425W Estimates 1984" (Cmnd. 9227) in the essay "Soviet Defence Expenditure" our studies then concluded that Soviet defence spending was some five times higher than the published figure and constituted 14 to 16 per cent. of GNP. In our subsequent comments on Soviet defence expenditure in paragraphs 12–13 of annex A to volume I of the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1986" (Cmnd. 9763) our conclusion is that in current prices outlays are now well over six times the official defence budget and that the higher growth rate of the Soviet defence budget which has taken place since 1983 is likely to be sustained at least to the end of the decade.