Berlin, Mar 10 (IANS): Germany's defence expenditure increased by 35.8 per cent to 38.7 billion euros ($42.6 billion) between 1991 and 2021, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said.

However, total government spending increased four times as fast during this period, reports Xinhua news agency citing Destatis as saying.

The share of Germany's defense expenditure almost halved from 3.9 per cent in 1991 to 2.1 per cent in 2021, according to Destatis.

Germany's government spending increased the most in health care and was more than three times as high as in 1991. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the increase was particularly strong in 2020 and 2021.

In light of the situation in Ukraine, the German government announced a special defence fund of 100 billion euros from the 2022 federal budget.

"We need to invest much more in the security of our country," said Chancellor Olaf Scholz days ago when announcing higher investments in Germany's armed forces during an extraordinary session of the Bundestag, lower parliament.

In 2020, the share of defence spending was 2.2 per cent of government spending in Germany, below the European Union (EU)'s average of 2.5 per cent, according to Destatis.