$1.5 billion Support Package to Provide Further Relief for All Singaporean Households with more support for Lower- to Middle-Income Groups
14 Oct 2022
1. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong has announced a $1.5 billion support package. This will provide further cost of living relief for all Singaporean households, with more support for lower- to middle-income groups. This builds on the support measures announced in Budget 2022, April 2022 and June 2022. The package will be funded from the better-than-expected fiscal out-turn in the first half of FY2022. Omicron was milder than expected, and more sectors of the economy had opened up in tandem, boosting economic recovery. There will be no draw on Past Reserves for this support package.
Global Inflation
2. The Government has rolled out a comprehensive set of measures since the start of this year, to help Singaporeans cope with higher inflation and cost of living concerns.
3. Anticipating rising prices, the Government introduced measures in Budget 2022 to cushion the impact to Singaporeans. In April 2022, we also brought forward some of the Budget measures, such as the disbursement of the Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers to all Singaporean households and the Small Business Recovery Grant for SMEs. In June 2022, in response to the sharper than expected rise in global inflation, we rolled out a $1.5 billion support package to provide immediate and targeted relief for the lower-income and more vulnerable groups. This included the one-off GST Voucher – Special Payment of up to $300 cash for lower- to middle-income Singaporeans and the one-off $100 Household Utilities Credit for all Singaporean households.
4. Since then, inflation has picked up further globally. While supply chain frictions have eased slightly, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine continues to put pressure on commodity prices. As a small, open economy, Singapore is particularly susceptible to imported price pressures, through channels such as food and energy. Domestically, a tight labour market continues to support strong wage growth. As such, we must be prepared for inflation to stay elevated for some time.
$1.5 billion Support Package
5. In light of the continued challenging environment, the Government will provide an additional $1.5 billion support package to provide further relief for all Singaporean households, with more support for lower- to middle-income groups. This includes a cost-of-living (COL) Special Payment of up to $500 cash for 2.5 million adult Singaporeans.
6. This new $1.5 billion support package, together with earlier rounds of support measures rolled out this year, will fully cover the increase in cost of living for lower-income households on average, and more than half of the increase in cost of living for middle-income households on average this year. More details can be found in the “Estimating the Effects of Cost-of-Living Support Measures in 2022
Issued by:
Ministry of Finance
Singapore
14 Oct 2022