In the first period (1988-1999), Croatia, followed by Cyprus, Serbia and Turkey have been the countries that spend more of their GDP on defense. Countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Albania, which had high figures till 1990, experienced significant reductions of this indicator. It is noted that despite trends, the funds allocated from the State Budget for defense were at the high levels.
Source: World Bank (WB)
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA
In the second period, in 2000 after the Kosovo war, Serbia had the highest percentage of defense expenditures to GDP, at the level of 5, 54%, while in 2001 Republic of Macedonia had this indicator at the highest level round 6,58%. In 2005 seems that Serbia continued to lead the region and still continues to be among the Balkan countries with the highest commitment to the fund allocated for defense function. In this period, Albania was among the countries with the lowest percentage of GDP spent on defense, but the trend changed in 2006. In 2009, Albania left behind more than half the countries in the region like Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia, etc
From the graph it should be noted that after 2005, the region countries seems to spend at the same levels regarding defense function, reflected in the less volatile (constant) percentage of expenditures to GDP for this purpose.
All the data is presented in the dynamic table below:
Source: World Bank (WB)
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA