The Singapore government has allocated another $ 8 billion ($ 5.8 billion) to support the economy coming under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat said on Monday.
“The resulting economic impact has been serious,” Heng, who is also coordinating economic policy minister, said in a televised address. He added that “the world economy remains very weak” and any recovery “will depend on how well countries control the spread of the virus.”
Singapore reported one of the worst economic contracts in Asia for the first half of the year. The open and trade-dependent economy has hit hard, because measures around the world were taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus, much of the global economic activity stopped.
The Southeast Asian country last week reported a 13.2% year-on-year contract in gross domestic product in the second quarter – the lowest on record, according to official statistics. The government in Singapore expects the economy to shrink by 5% and 7% this year, which would be the worst recession, official data showed.
Many of the support measures announced Monday by the Deputy Prime Minister are extensions to existing policies. They include:
- An extension of wage subsidies by seven months until March 2021. The amount of subsidies that companies can receive depends on the “projected recovery” of various sectors;
- An additional 187 million Singapore dollars ($ 136.5 million) in relief for the aviation sector;
- Cash benefits for unemployed Singaporeans as well as for those who have significant loss of income, and low-wage workers.
Meanwhile, new measures announced by Heng include $ 320 million in “tourist credit” for Singaporeans to encourage domestic tourism.
Before the aid measures were announced on Monday, the Singapore government had already dug into its reserves to finance four fiscal stimulus packages worth close to 100 billion Singapore dollars, or about 20% of GDP.
Heng said Singapore will not sign on to its reserves to fund the latest set of aid.
“We intend to fund these measures by exchanging money back from other areas, such as development expenditures that were delayed due to Covid-19. There are no plans to sign on to Past Reserves for these measures, beyond what was previously approved, “he said.
Covid-19 is the formal name of coronavirus disease.
Singapore was one of the first countries outside China to report cases of coronavirus. As of Monday afternoon, the country had reported more than 55,800 infections, according to its Ministry of Health.
.
