Tanzania - Military Spending

Military expenditure according to CIA was 1.13% of GDP (2012); 1.12% of GDP (2011); and 1.13% of GDP (2010). The GDP is calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP).

Defense expenditure in 1999 Tanzania constituted some 1.8% of GDP or US$ 141 million - a US$5 million decline from the 1998 expenditure levels. The actual defense budget, however, demonstrated a US$ 31 million increase from US$ 106 million in 1998 to US$ 137 million in 1999 and peaking at US$ 144 million in 2000. Defense spending as a component of the national budget remained comparatively high and is estimated to constitute approximately 20% of the national budget.

East African countries grew their defense budgets at a faster pace than the continent’s average in 2013, as regional armies deepened their arms build-up in the face of new terrorism threats from groups like the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), which researches on conflict and arms control across the world, reported in April 2014. Tanzania increased its defense budget the most by 34.4 percent to $380 million, while Kenya increased its defense budget by 20 percent to $861 million.

Military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country).

Excluded are civil defense and current expenditures for previous military activities, such as for veterans' benefits, demobilization, conversion, and destruction of weapons. This definition cannot be applied for all countries, however, since that would require much more detailed information than is available about what is included in military budgets and off-budget military expenditure items. (For example, military budgets might or might not cover civil defense, reserves and auxiliary forces, police and paramilitary forces, dual-purpose forces such as military and civilian police, military grants in kind, pensions for military personnel, and social security contributions paid by one part of government to another.)