The word of caution from Lee comes within days of a top banker suggesting the need for Singapore to better deploy its reserves and leverage its wealthy status by investing more in the region. The city-state has budgeted for another year of slim deficit in 2023, amid measures to blunt inflationary pressures including higher subsidies to lower-income households to offset an increase in goods-and-services tax.
Singapore needs to be mindful about not burning through reserves, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, citing risks from the recent trend of spending outpacing the government’s revenue growth.
While noting that the city-state’s reserves are sufficient for “most circumstances,” Lee told state broadcaster CNA in an interview published Wednesday that it doesn’t guarantee things will remain so in the times to come.
