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World

Singapore unveils US$3.6 billion third stimulus package for battered economy

Coupled with two earlier packages, the city state will devote a total of US$42 billion to the virus fight, using US
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By BR Web Desk
  • Coupled with two earlier packages, the city state will devote a total of US$42 billion to the virus fight, using US$14.6 billion of its reserves
  • News come as the country prepares to shut non-essential businesses and schools for a month

Singapore’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat on Monday unveiled the country’s third stimulus package in two months, with the government once again drawing on its deep sovereign reserves to fund new measures aimed at tiding businesses and citizens through a month-long partial lockdown to stem a surge in Covid-19 cases

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The latest measures amount to S$5.1billion (US$3.55 billion). Combined with S$6.4 billion (US$4.4 billion) worth of measures in the country’s annual budget in February and a S$48.4 billion (US$33.7 billion) package unveiled on March 26, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s government has now committed a fiscal injection worth S$59.9 billion (US$42 billion) to deal with the crisis – amounting to 12 per cent of GDP.

The total drawdown from the national reserves amounts to S$21 billion (US$14.5 billion).

The biggest of the new measures was a hike in a job support scheme first unveiled in the February budget and enhanced in March. With Monday’s boost, the government will now offset up to 75 per cent of the first S$4,600 of all local workers’ monthly wages for the month of April.

In the last stimulus round, the government approved a nine-month offset of 25 per cent of wages for most workers up to the S$4,600 amount, with only some hard-hit firms able to enjoy up to 50 or 75 per cent co-funding.

He had previously termed the February measures the “Unity Budget” and the March measures the “Resilience Budget”.

“We must expect our overall GDP to take a further hit. But we must take these hard decisions, make the difficult adjustments, and do all that we can in the next few months to protect the lives of our people,” Deputy Prime Minister Heng said.

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