Argentina

Argentina: Middling Military Outlay Against a High Debt Projection

Argentina's economy was valued at $638.4 billion in 2024, per the World Bank's WDI data, with GDP per capita of $13,970 — the highest of the countries in this batch — across a population of 45.7 million. The IMF's World Economic Outlook projects government debt at 70.4 percent of GDP for 2026, against reserves of just $32.5 billion in 2025 per IMF IFS figures, a reserve base well below half of the debt projection in dollar terms relative to GDP.

Military Spending and Capacity

SIPRI's 2025 figures place military spending at $3.9 billion, or 0.563 percent of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series — one of the lower ratios in this group. That ratio should not be recomputed against the World Bank's GDP figure, since SIPRI's milex-to-GDP share is tied to its own GDP series. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 72,000 active personnel in 2022 and a CINC score of 0.00448, both dated three years before the SIPRI spending figure.

Governance

Argentina's V-Dem 2025 scores are comparatively strong within this set: electoral democracy at 0.690 and liberal democracy at 0.524, with state capacity at 0.577. The gap between electoral and liberal democracy scores suggests stronger competitive elections than constraints on executive power, though both remain well above several other countries in this batch.

Energy

Argentina consumed 3.5392 exajoules of primary energy in 2024, per Our World in Data, with electricity generation of 153.15 TWh — though that electricity figure is dated 2025, a year later than the primary energy figure. Oil production reached 681.964 TWh in 2024, substantially exceeding gas production of 441.133 TWh the same year — both figures current to 2024 and directly comparable.

Data Gaps

No personnel or CINC figures newer than 2022 appear in this record, leaving a three-year gap against the 2025 financial and spending data. No nuclear or alliance figures are present. The 2026 debt figure is an IMF projection rather than a recorded outturn, and given Argentina's history of macroeconomic volatility, that forward-looking status is worth keeping in mind when weighing it against the firmer, backward-looking reserves and spending figures.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, IMF IFS, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy)