BERLIN, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Germany's defense expenditure rose by 35.8 percent to 38.7 billion euros (42.6 billion U.S. dollars) between 1991 and 2021, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Wednesday.
However, total government spending increased four times as fast during this period. The share of Germany's defense expenditure almost halved from 3.9 percent in 1991 to 2.1 percent in 2021, according to Destatis.
Germany's government spending increased the most in health care and was more than three times as high as in 1991. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase was particularly strong in 2020 and 2021.
In light of the situation in Ukraine, the German government announced a special defense fund of 100 billion euros from the 2022 federal budget.
"We need to invest much more in the security of our country," said Chancellor Olaf Scholz days ago when announcing higher investments in Germany's armed forces during an extraordinary session of the Bundestag, lower parliament.
In 2020, the share of defense spending was 2.2 percent of government spending in Germany, below the European Union (EU)'s average of 2.5 percent, according to Destatis. ■