German military headed for $61B spending gap in 2028, Spiegel reports

PHOTO CAPTION: A member of Air Mobile Protection Team sits on a vehicle as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits the Cologne-Bonn Air Force base to attend a demonstration of the capabilities of the Territorial Command of the German army Bundeswehr in Wahn, a suburb of Cologne, Germany, October 23, 2023. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German military is looking at a 56 billion-euro ($61 billion) deficit in 2028, once its special fund for defence spending is exhausted, according to a report in Spiegel news magazine that piles fresh doubt on Germany's rearmament pledge.

Germany set up the 100 billion-euro special fund to purchase modern weapons and pledged to reach NATO's target of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defence, as part of a major policy shift in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The missing sum, which Spiegel said came from an internal analysis of financing needs from the defence ministry, is based on the assumption that 2% of GDP in 2028 would be around 97 billion euros.

Ministry staff expect that an additional 10.8 billion euros would be needed on top of that to meet the troops' spending needs, Spiegel reported.

However, the regular defence budget was expected to remain at its current level, amounting to some 51.9 billion euros in 2028, the report said.

The defence ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

By comparison, the German government registered defence spending of 89 billion euros with NATO for this year, or 2.12% of GDP, according to Spiegel.

($1 = 0.9246 euros)



(Writing by Rachel More, editing by Kirsti Knolle)