SINGAPORE – Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat will deliver Singapore’s Budget 2021 statement in Parliament on February 16.
“There will be live television and radio coverage of the Budget statement,” said the Finance Ministry in a statement today.
Heng, who also holds the finance portfolio, said on Facebook that preparations for the spending plan are well under way.
“The pandemic is contained locally, and vaccination is ongoing. But the overall outlook remains highly uncertain, and will be the case for some time to come.
“If the trajectory of economic recovery is on track, then we will have a more ‘traditional’ Budget year. But if the situation takes a turn for the worse, we are ready to respond and adapt.”
He said it has been somewhat of a tradition for several years now to announce the date of the Budget around the turn of the year, and 2020 is no different.
“But this year has been far from traditional. Instead of an annual Budget, we had four budgets and two ministerial statements. To support our workers, companies and households through Covid-19, we introduced several rounds of support measures.”
Singapore has channelled close to S$100 billion (RM305.17 billion) to support its people and businesses through the virus crisis.
The Trade and Industry Ministry will release the advance gross domestic product estimates for the fourth quarter and whole year of 2020 on January 4.
On November 23, it announced that Singapore’s GDP growth is expected to come in at “-6.5% to -6.0%” in 2020, and “+4.0% to +6.0%” next year. – Bernama, December 31, 2020
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