China hikes defence budget to $177.61 billion, three times that of India’s

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China has increased its defence budget by 7.5 per cent for this year, hiking it to $177.61 billion from last year’s $175 billion.  It is over three times India’s defence budget.  The 2019 defence budget will be 1.19 trillion yuan (about $177.61 billion), according to a draft budget report to be submitted at the opening of the annual session of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, on Tuesday.

The increase this year is lower than that of last year’s 8.1 per cent.  China, which increased its defence budget in double digits till 2015, lowered it to single digit hikes since 2016. China’s budgeted defence spending growth rate stood at 7.6 per cent in 2016, 7 per cent in 2017 and 8.1 per cent in 2018.

With this increase, China’s defence spending moved closer to the $200 billion mark, making it the highest spender on defence after the United States.  India’s defence budget this year was increased by 6.87 per cent to Rs 3.18 lakh crore against last year’s allocation of Rs 2.98 lakh crore, notwithstanding expectations of a major hike when China and Pakistan were bolstering their military capabilities.