Ghana spent an amount of $98 million at current prices on its military in 2011, according to new figures published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) April 17, 2012.

But in real terms, the Institute indicated that the country’s expenditure on its military in 2011 was $96 million, declining 23% from $125 million it spent in 2010.

The 2011 military expenditure was 0.4% of the 2010 gross domestic product (GDP), SIPRI figures indicated adding that Ghana spent $26 million on the military in 1988.

According to SIPRI, world military expenditure in 2011 totalled $1.74 trillion, almost unchanged since 2010 in real terms.

“The small rise of just 0.3% in 2011 marks the end of a run of continuous increases in military spending between 1998 and 2010, including an annual average increase of 4.5% between 2001 and 2009,” the Institute said in a statement accompanying the report.

The SIPRI observed that six of the world’s top military spenders—Brazil, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States—made cuts in their military budgets in 2011 as part of attempts to reduce budget deficits but nations such as China and Russia increased their military spending markedly.

“The after-effects of the global economic crisis, especially deficit-reduction measures in the USA and Europe, have finally brought the decade-long rise in military spending to a halt—at least for now,” said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Project.

African countries spent $32.2 billion on their military during the year 2011 as the SIPRI said most of the regional increase of 8.6% was accounted for by a 44% ($2.5 billion) increase by Algeria – partly due to concerns over the conflict in Libya.

While North Africa’s expenditure was $13.1 billion, sub-Sahara Africa’s was $19.1 billion.