Non-Subscriber ExtractItalian armed forces braced for budget cuts |
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By Paolo Valpolini
02 December 2009
Italy's armed forces are set to become the latest in Europe to suffer from the global economic downturn, according to a draft of the 2010 defence budget.
While the budget is set to increase by 0.3 per cent to EUR20.4 billion (USD30.7 billion), a significant portion of this is allocated to territorial security (Carabinieri) and similar functions. This leaves EUR14.3 billion for the armed forces: a 0.4 per cent fall and less than 1 per cent of Italy's gross domestic product.
Procurement spending, however, is to be increased by EUR280 million over the 2009 figure to EUR3.1 billion. While most of this is for multi-year programmes, a small amount is available for new projects.