Singapore Budget 2020

As COVID-19 stymied Singapore’s economic growth and impacted livelihoods, the country unveiled an unprecedented four Budgets for its current financial year, bringing the total of pandemic-related measures to almost $93 million.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat unveiled the $6.4 billion Unity Budget in February, the $48 billion Resilience Budget in March, the $5.1 billion Solidarity Budget in April and the $33 billion Fortitude Budget in May.

“Together with the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets, we are dedicating $92.9 billion or 19.2 per cent of our GDP (gross domestic product), to support our people in this battle,” he said. The new Budget funds will also take Singapore’s overall budget deficit for 2020 to $74.3 billion, or 15.4 per cent of its GDP.

To fund the Fortitude Budget, the government dipped into Singapore’s past reserves for the second time in the financial year. While $21 billion had been drawn for the Resilience and Solidarity Budgets, another $31 billion was tapped for the Fortitude Budget.

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