Singapore Budget 2017 - What People Wished From it?

The budget for the financial year 2016-2017 will be announced pretty soon. This will make the government’s priorities pretty clear for this year. This will be the first budget announced by Mr. Heng Swee Keat ever since he became the Finance Minister. The budget comes at a tough time of economic restructuring at a time when redundancies are on an all time high. 

The services that were accounted for bulk of job redundancy with total layoffs being the highest since the 2009 global financial crisis. Amidst all the economic slowdown this year, observers have stated that the main focus of the budget will be helping businesses cope with economic headwinds and keeping Singaporeans gainfully employed.

What do the higher ups have to say about it?

Irvin Seah, a DBS Bank senior economist stated that it is important that companies get the required assistance to navigate difficult economic conditions, so as to safeguard negative impact on the labour market. He said that If Singapore ends up facing recession risks, then there will be a chance of a broad-based retrenchment. And that is the last thing policy makers would want. 

Expectations

The budget for 2017 will have a very strong focus on the economy separating from the trend in the last couple of years when social spending has been on the rise consistently. Economists said that they expect to see measures that are mainly focused on helping firms cope with cost pressures, and keeping liquidity lines open despite a slow growth. Despite all this, it is still unlikely to detract from medium-term priorities like innovation and internationalisation.

Based on projection by DBS and OCBC, a small fiscal surplus of up to 0.4% of nominal GDP could be forecast, amid slower growth and inflation outlook weighing on both revenue and expenditure.

Mr Ho has stated that necessary steps have already been taken to prepare for future spending needs. The Government introduced more progressive vehicle, property and income tax measures in the previous budgets. Investment firm Temasek in the Net Investment Returns framework, which is expected to contribute revenue of about 1 per cent of GDP, or almost S$4 billion was also included in it.