Singapore has substantial kitty to tide it through virus crisis

AROUND the world, countries have been announcing unprecedented economic measures on both the monetary and fiscal policy fronts to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Singapore is doing the same. However, how it is funding its crisis package is different from many other countries.

The supplementary Resilience Budget announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat last Thursday, when added to the initial Unity Budget 2020 announced only five weeks earlier, totals S$54.8 billion. This amounts to 11 per cent of Singapore's projected 2020 gross domestic product (GDP). It is comparable to the United States' crisis package which, at US$2 trillion, is equivalent to 9.3 per cent of the US' GDP last year.