Title page 1

Contents 3

Abstract 1

1. Introduction 4

2. Military spending trends, 1970-2023 5

3. Literature review 6

4. IMF surveillance and military spending 8

Multilateral surveillance 9

Bilateral surveillance 10

5. Concluding comments 14

Annex I. Military expenditure: Summary statistics, 1970-2023 15

Annex II. Coverage of military spending 16

References 17

FIGURE 1A. Military expenditure as a share of GDP, 1970-2023 5

FIGURE 1B. Military expenditure as a share of government expenditure, 1980-23 6

FIGURE 2. Military spending coverage in IMF Article IV reports and IMF program documents, 2008-23 10

FIGURE 3. Military spending coverage in Article IV and programs by depth of coverage (2008-23) 11

FIGURE 4. Depth of military expenditure coverage in IMF Article IV reports and IMF program documents, 2008-23 12

Countries for which the fund covered military spending in Article IV reports and/or program documents, 2008-23 16