Middle East and North African defence spending falls despite 8% growth being recorded globally, says Janes

Cuts to spending in the region fell just shy of forecasts, with spending expected to remain flat at USD160 billion in 2022, according to the trusted global agency for open-source defence intelligence

The latest analysis from Janes shows that despite global spending growing 8%, defence spending in the Middle East and North Africa region saw cuts of 5% during 2021.

“The outlook for 2022 remains relatively flat at this point in time at USD159.4 billion, but may return to growth in the coming months as budgets are released and approved,” said Charles Forrester, Lead Analyst for Industry and Budgets (MENA) at Janes. “This is an improvement on the outlook at the end of 2020, when further cuts of 3.42% in 2022 were anticipated.

“A flat-lining of defence expenditure growth in 2022 for the MENA region would allow countries breathing space for their investments – indeed, Janes interconnected intelligence highlights investment currently takes up 17.7% of regional budgets. With some major procurement programmes coming to an end in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, this may then mean that the expenditure outlays for the completed programmes can be maintained and passed to other projects.”

“Over the past few years there has been some slowing in procurement by some key spenders in the region, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the oil price crash delaying some significant multi-year procurement programmes. Some key spenders in the region have also faced political stumbling blocks in 2020 and 2021 to formally passing a budget, making major equipment spending difficult.”

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