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Spain THE DEFENSE BUDGET
The defense budget for 1988 was set at 762 billion
pesetas
(for value of the
peseta--see Glossary),
or US$6.74
billion based
on 1988 rates of exchange. It was apportioned on the basis
of 37
percent to the army, 24 percent to the navy, 19 percent to
the
air force, and 20 percent to centralized functions (the
Ministry
of Defense). The army budget, which had constituted 46
percent of
the total in 1982, had begun to diminish as a result of
reductions in army force levels. The shift also reflected
major
weapons acquisitions programs by the navy and the air
force. The
cost of centralized functions had risen as a result of the
development of the new command structure, the
consolidation of
many operations that had previously been administered by
individual services, and the decision of the minister of
defense
to control major equipment acquisitions more directly.
The 1988 defense budget was somewhat higher than the
corresponding figures for 1987 (703 billion pesetas) and
for 1986
(630 billion pesetas). In real terms, however, the rise in
defense allocations had been lower than the annual rate of
4.432
percent planned for the eight-year period 1982-90.
Moreover, the
military budget had declined as a percentage of the total
government budget, from 13.2 percent in 1978 to 8.81
percent in
1986. Military expenditures also declined slightly, during
the
same period, as a percentage of gross domestic product
(GDP--see Glossary),
from 2.06 percent to 1.97 percent.
Alhough personnel costs remained high in proportion to
total
defense expenditures, a distinct reduction was recorded
between
1982 and 1986, of from 49.9 percent to 44.5 percent.
Expenditures
for construction and materiel expanded from 34.8 percent
of the
total in 1982 to 42.3 percent in 1986. Operating costs (of
15.3
percent in 1982 and 13.2 percent in 1986) were
proportionately
somewhat lower. Although the army was gradually bringing
its
personnel outlays under control, they continued to be much
higher
than those in the other services--58.8 percent of its
total
expenditures in 1988, compared with 31.3 percent in the
navy and
33.5 percent in the air force. Moreover, because of their
earlier
starts on modernization programs, much higher shares of
the navy
and the air force budgets (over 50 percent for each in
1986) were
being invested in equipment and in construction than was
true in
the army (22 percent in 1986).
According to a study prepared by the United States Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency, Spain ranked thirteenth
among
NATO's sixteen nations in military expenditures per
capita,
calculated on the basis of 1985 defense budgets. With the
exception of Luxembourg and Iceland, it ranked last in
military
expenditures as a percentage of GDP. Spain's defense
outlays were
well below the average of 3.4 percent of GDP attained by
other
European NATO countries.
Data as of December 1988
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