Newspaper Welt am Sonntag said the value of individual approvals granted for exporting arms was 7.86 billion euros ($8.75 billion) last year compared with 3.97 billion euros worth of arms exports in 2014. German arms exports almost doubled last year to their highest level since the beginning of this century, a German newspaper said on Sunday, citing a report from the Economy Ministry that is due to be presented to the cabinet on Wednesday. In February German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said preliminary figures showed that Germany had given approval for around 7.5 billion euros worth of arms shipments in 2015. The Economy Minister Gabriel had promised to a more cautious approach towards license arms export particularly to Middle East. Last year the government rejected 100 applications for arms export approvals - the same number as in the previous year, Welt am Sonntag reported.

Source: dna July 03, 2016 14:44 UTC