pennanent fiEmbers of the securlty counc il by 10 per cent and utilization of part of lhe funds thus saved to provide asaistance to developing countries" (A/ 9'l7O/Eev.I, united Nations publlcation, sales No. E.75.1.10), and the report of the secretary- General on tlre reduction of nilltary budgets (A/s-L2/71 - 12l Estlnates of world military expenditure cone mainly frorn the stockholn International Peace Research fnstitute (SfPRI) and the Unlted States Arms Control and Disarrnament Agency (ACDA). The figures suPplled by these two sources differ considerably in sone cases, but not enough to affect conclusions substantially. ACDA figures are generatly higher. Thus the ACDA estirnate of vJorld tnilitary expendilure for 19?9 was $521 biuion - 6 per cent higher than the SIPRI estimate of $492 billion. Ib ensure conparabllity between chaPters and sections' lte have chosen to use sMI figures throughout thls rePort. Anyrray, the margin of error in the figures is probably larger than the differences between figures from different sources. The data on whlch they base thenselves are uneven in guality and sctne are quite uncertaln. For world military expenditure, figurea I0 per cent higher or Iower than those given nould still be plausible. In the trend figures given subSequently, the nargln of error is generally much snallerr since this is mostly a question of consistenclt in definitlons. over long tine spans, the use of other, equally plausibte c.oefficients to correct for price changes could, of course, have a notlceable effect. 13,/ Official military budget figures for the soviet union nere rather stable in the second half of the I97Os. In L977, the figure \tas 1.7.2 billion roubles and went dolrn into a reported L? billion roubles in 1980. oting to dlfferences in coverage and difflculties with conversion rates, these figures are not directly conparable Co military budget figures elsewhere in the rePort. For the United
**Analysis**
This text appears to be discussing economic and financial data related to military expenditure and budgets, which suggests a focus on the broader economic context. The text also mentions assistance to developing countries, which could be related to humanitarian aid and relief. However, the primary focus is on the economic aspects of military spending.

**Category**
Economic development, International trade