Beijing: China's legislative spokeswoman says the country's military budget will grow by about 10 percent in the coming year.
That would be a slightly smaller rise than last year, but would be the fifth year in a row of double-digit increases, despite slowing economic growth that fell to 7.4 percent last year and is expected to further decline in 2015. The increase would bring the total military budget to about $145 billion.
Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the National People's Congress, says this year's military budget figure -- to be confirmed Thursday -- is in line with an overall increase in government spending of about 10 percent.
