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Rouhani more than doubles Iran’s defense budget in 4 years

Business Materials 27 February 2017 16:05 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 27

By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:

President Hassan Rouhani has increased Iran’s defense budget by 86 percent since he took office in 2013.

The announcement was made by Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, head of the Planning and Budget Organization, who added that the defense budget envisioned for the upcoming Iranian fiscal year (to start March 21) is 128 percent greater than that of 2013, Trend correspondent reported February 27.

This is while, Nobakht noted, economic inflation in the country has stood a little above 10 percent in average since 2013.

For the upcoming fiscal year, Iran’s defense budget is set at $11.6 billion.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2015 Iran’s defense budget stood at $10 billion, equal to 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

In that year, the US had the highest military expenditure, $596 billion, equal to 3.3 percent of its GDP. The military budget of Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia was $87 billion for that year – equal to the 13.7 percent of the Arab country’s GDP, while Turkey’s military expenditure stood at $15 billion, which made 2.1 percent of its GDP.

The Iranian government has been increasingly encouraged to pursue a stronger defense program in recent years. The country is now surrounded by neighbors where terrorism is rampant. Upon many occasions terrorist groups have attempted entering the Iranian territory.

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