French President Emmanuel Macron‘s pledge to increase military spending, a day after a million people hit the streets to protest his planned pension overhaul, illustrates the test facing European welfare systems as the costs of war in Ukraine pile up.
On Friday, Mr. Macron vowed to raise military spending to 400 billion euros, equivalent to $433 billion, between 2024 and 2030, up from €295 billion between 2019 and 2025. France currently spends around 1.9% of its gross domestic product on defense, just shy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s target of 2%.
American Dollar Exchange Rate
