The maritime Southeast Asian country Singapore, without the support measures by the government to squab the huge blow of COVID-19 pandemic, the economy would probably have contracted by twice.
According to Ministry of Finance (MOF) The assessment of key COVID-19 budget measures found that the economy of Singapore could have depreciated by 12.4 per cent or more previous year.
Based on advance estimates, Singapore’s GDP fell by 5.8 per cent in the year 2020.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) estimated that previous five year’s budgets costing about 100 billion Singaporean dollars supported GDP growth by 5.5 percentage points.
By easing the monetary policy helped GDP to go up by a further 1.1 percentage points.
Heng Swee Keat, The Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore said:
“The COVID-19 support measures have made a significant difference to keep our people safe and preserve our livelihoods,”
“Job losses were averted and shocks were cushioned. More help went to supporting families in need, which went some way to mitigate inequality,”
“The interim analysis is encouraging, as it showed that the schemes are achieving the outcomes that they were designed for.”
22.6 billion Singaporean dollars was paid out in wage support for Singaporean workers under Jobs Support Scheme from April to December previous year.
The Singapore government has also introduced measures to help create Jobs and match jobseekers with training opportunities and work, the skills package and SGUnited Jobs placed nearly 76,000 local jobseekers in sectors such as healthcare, ICT and manufacturing.
The support package included cash pay-outs like the Workfare special payment for low-income workers and solidarity payment.
