The country’s government is willing to take measures to deal with issues created by the coronavirus pandemic. Singapore’s government made an interesting announcement. It is worth mentioning that, the government announced a new fiscal package worth 11 billion Singapore dollars ($8.3 billion) to support Covid vaccination efforts as well as economic segments affected by the pandemic. Hopefully, Singapore’s government is ready to boost the economy.
Let’s have a look at the Covid support package. Interestingly, about 4.8 million Singapore dollars ($3.6 billion) are meant for public health as well as safe reopening measures, including vaccination, contract tracing and testing capabilities.
Moreover, the government will extend existing schemes to subsidize the wages of workers as well as provide financing to businesses. Furthermore, part of the funds will be used to support certain sectors such as aviation, land transportation, and arts.
The country’s government last year committed more than 90 billion Singapore dollars ($68 billion) to mitigate the pandemic’s economic hit. Hopefully, those measures, along with the central bank’s monetary support, helped Singapore to avoid bigger losses. Importantly, with the measures, the economy would have shrunk by at least 12.4% last year. Interestingly, that’s more than double the 5.4% contraction still the worst-ever economic recession country recorded in 2020.
Singapore’s economy in 2021
It is worth mentioning that, Singapore’s economy is expected to grow 4% to 6% this year, according to the government’s forecast.
People should take into account that Singapore was one of the first countries outside China to report cases of Covid-19 in early 2020. As a reminder, the country went into a partial lockdown in April last year to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Importantly, the economy gradually reopened since June as well as the number of newly confirmed cases slowed down in recent months.
Interestingly, the latest Covid support package is part of the country’s government budget for the coming financial year starting April. Overall, Singapore’s government is expected to record a deficit of 11 billion Singapore dollars ($8.3 billion) or 2.2% of GDP. As a reminder, the country’s constitution requires the government’s revenue and expenditure to be balanced over a typical five-year term.
Singapore’s government is working hard to improve the situation. It is no secret that the coronavirus pandemic created a lot of challenges for Singapore and other countries as well. Hopefully, the government is ready to spend billions of dollars to help businesses and workers transition to a post-pandemic world.
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