Singapore extends coronavirus Jobs Support Scheme to March

City state to spend a further US$5.8 billion on top of US$68 billion of stimulus measures

But subsidies will taper off as Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat warns the Jobs Support Scheme is unsustainable at current levels

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Construction workers on Orchard Road, Singapore. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:58pm, 17 Aug 2020Updated: 10:20pm, 17 Aug 2020

Singapore, which has unleashed some S$93 billion (US$68 billion) of stimulus measures this year, said on Monday it would spend a further S$8 billion (US$5.8 billion) to extend a wage subsidy programme to next March, as most sectors continue to struggle amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said the government hoped extending the scheme by up to seven months would help companies retain as many workers as possible.

Unemployment in the republic stands at 2.9 per cent, up from 2.4 per cent in the January-March period and not far off the 3.4 per cent peak during the Global Financial Crisis.

A shop closes during Singapore’s ‘circuit breaker’ partial lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Photo: EPA

Heng said the S$8 billion plan – on top of the four sets of stimulus announced between February and May – would be financed through the reallocation of funds from “other areas such as development expenditures that were delayed by Covid-19”.

Some S$52 billion of the S$93 billion stimulus unveiled thus far was funded by using the country’s fiscal reserves, which are estimated to be over S$1 trillion.

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