Singapore DPM To Deliver 2021 Budget Statement On Feb 16

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Dec 31 (Bernama) -- Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat will deliver the republic’s 2021 Budget Statement on Feb 16 in Parliament. “There will be live television and radio coverage of the Budget Statement,” said the Ministry of Finance in a statement here, Thursday. Meanwhile, Heng wrote on his official Facebook that preparation for Budget 2021 is well underway. “The (COVID-19) 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 wrote further. The minister noted that since several years ago, it is almost a "tradition” to announce the date of the annual 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,” he said. Singapore has dedicated close to S$100 billion (S$1=RM3.04) to support its people and businesses through this difficult period. The republic's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) will release the advance Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2020 on Jan 4. MTI had on November 23 announced that Singapore’s GDP growth is expected to come in at “-6.5 to -6.0 per cent” in 2020 and “+4.0 to +6.0 per cent” in 2021. -- BERNAMA