On February 18, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore, Heng Swee Keat, delivered his Budget 2020 speech and announced a series of measures aimed at boosting the Singapore economy. Several of the measures were designed to cushion the impact of the outbreak and to reduce the burden of the economy slowdown which business have experienced even before the outbreak.
Responding to the announcements, Reshmi Khurana, Managing Director and Head of Southeast Asia, in the Business Intelligence and Investigations practice at Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps, complimented that the budget has exceeded expectations and have achieved the objective of providing assistance to businesses and citizens. “The various payouts to individuals and concessions to enterprises is exactly what you need in a difficult time like this. This will certainly give a short-term boost to the economy in terms of consumption spend. The key challenge is to see if the steps announced yesterday are successful in stemming a slowdown in investments in the medium term,” says Reshmi.
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