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Yugoslavia Military Budget
In the early 1980s, the military budget of Yugoslavia held
steady between US$2 and US$2.5 billion, despite the country's
severe economic stringency. The expanded internal security
mission of the YPA was probably the compelling factor in higher
defense spending in the mid-1980s
(see Internal Security
, this
ch.). Nevertheless, the national economic stabilization program
required the YPA to cut expenditures by 5 percent in both 1986
and 1987. The 1987 military budget was US$2.7 billion, with cuts
absorbed largely in reduced manpower
(see Recruitment and Service Obligations
, this ch.). At that time, Yugoslav defense
expenditures dropped below those of every non-Soviet Warsaw Pact
state and neighboring NATO countries Italy and Greece. In 1988
the military budget increased to US$2.8 billion and to over
US$4.4 billion in 1989. Yet these increases failed to match the
national inflation rate, and defense spending declined in real
terms.
In postwar Yugoslavia the burden of the military budget on
the national economy was traditionally a heavy one. In 1952, at
the height of spending to meet the Soviet threat to Yugoslavia,
22 percent of the country's GNP was dedicated to fielding a
500,000-man regular army. That figure subsequently decreased, but
throughout the Tito years it remained relatively high by world
standards.
The military budget as a proportion of federal government
expenditures also reflected the high priority of defense. The
federal government routinely dedicated 50 percent to 60 percent
of its annual outlay to defense. In the 1980s, this ratio was
consistently the highest or second highest in the world. In 1987,
however, spending cuts temporarily dropped the defense share of
total federal expenditures to just under 30 percent. In
Yugoslavia this measurement overstated the burden of military
spending somewhat because many government expenditures were made
at the republic, autonomous province, or commune level, rather
than by the federal government. Even considering that factor,
however, defense remained the largest component of federal
government spending.
Data as of December 1990
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