World arms sales hit $531 billion in 2020
Marking the sixth consecutive year of growth, sales by the world's top 100 arms producers reached $531 billion in 2020 with the US taking a 54% share, according to an international think tank on Monday, News.Az reports citing Anadolu Agency.
Sales of arms and military services by the industry’s 100 largest companies increased 1.3% compared with the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report.
The US continued hosting the highest number of companies ranked in the top 100 as the arms sales of 41 US companies totaled $285 billion with a rise of 1.9% year-on-year.
Since 2018, the top five companies in the ranking have all been based in the US, the report underlined.
Accounting for 13% of the total, the arms sales of five Chinese companies included in the top 100 rose 1.5% to $66.8 billion in the same period.
The UK companies made up the third-largest share in the last year's figure as their arms sales hit $37.5 billion in 2020, up by 6.2% compared to 2019.
Russian companies' arms sales decreased by 6.5% on an annual basis, reaching $26.4 billion last year.
"This marks a continuation of the downward trend observed since 2017, when arms sales by Russian companies in the Top 100 peaked," the report read.
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