NATO yesterday once again pointed to Spain as the member of the Atlantic Alliance that makes the lowest investment in defense relative to the size of its economy. In fact, the organization’s annual report indicates that the country’s military spending closed 2024 at 1.24% of its GDP, compared to the 1.4% outlined in the government’s rearmament plan. The figure increases the outstanding gap to reach the commitment of 2% of GDP in military spending by €3 billion, an amount that would be additional to the €10.5 billion that Moncloa had planned to reallocate to defense to meet its allies in 2025.
NATO’s annual report, published yesterday, specifically details that Spain’s public spending computable as defense amounted to €19.723 billion in 2024 (compared to €17.451 billion in 2023). This figure is equivalent to 1.238% of the country’s GDP, compared to the 1.28% that NATO had been estimating until now, mainly due to the strength of the Spanish economy, which grew by 3.2% last year, reducing the relative weight of investment in security and defense.
The new official data provided by the Atlantic Alliance not only widens the gap that the country still needs to close to meet NATO’s current demand to allocate 2% of GDP to defense, but it would also undermine the roadmap designed by the government this very week to achieve it: https://goo.su/JEzRd4
