Domain trends

„ The coronavirus pandemic will have a significant effect on public and therefore defence spending, but not immediately. While several countries in Asia and in the Middle East moved quickly to adjust public spending, it will likely take until 2022–23 for the full economic effects of governments’ financial responses to the pandemic to translate into defence budget cuts elsewhere. A similar lag was seen after the 2008 financial crisis. Perhaps paradoxically, the immediate effect of the pandemic seems to have been that some Western governments – for example France and Germany – accelerated spending to support local suppliers, while sharper threat perceptions also led to increased spending.