On Aug 17, the government announced another $8 billion package to battle the bug, as cracks in Singapore’s economy are getting more apparent. For one, over 300,000 workers have suffered lower income of more than 10% since the start of the pandemic. Those with lower income and in the age bracket of 35 to 44 have been harder hit than the average, DBS Bank revealed on Aug 18. For this demographic, a third of the workers suffered wage cuts of more than half, and a quarter saw incomes fall between 31% and 50%. DBS, which has the largest retail deposit base, obtained these findings by parsing anonymised account data between March and May of some 1.2 million customers whose salaries are credited into the bank’s accounts.
THE EDGE SINGAPORE - Singapore was told it could tide through the Covid-19 health-turned-economic crisis with Unity, Resilience, Solidarity and Fortitude — values after which the city-state’s unprecedented four Budgets for the year were christened. Totalling $92.9 billion or some 20% of GDP, the landmark package, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, was “a necessary response to an unprecedented crisis”.
This massive stimulus had worked, to a certain extent. According to a joint study by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Finance, the four Budgets have collectively prevented Singapore’s real GDP from losing some 5.5% in 2020, alleviating what is already the worst quarterly contraction on record for 2Q2020.
