SINGAPORE LAUNCHES EXPANSIONARY BUDGET

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SINGAPORE 000080 STATE PASS USTR NEW DELHI FOR EHRENDREICH SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EFIN SN SUBJECT: SINGAPORE LAUNCHES EXPANSIONARY BUDGET REF: SINGAPORE 43, 08 SINGAPORE 1242 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Singapore's Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam unveiled an expansionary budget January 22 with S$20.5 billion (USD 13.7 billion) in new measures to help Singapore businesses and workers survive the economic downturn. Tharman made clear the budget was not sufficient to pull Singapore out of recession but was rather aimed at preventing a sharper downturn and lasting damage to the Singapore economy. The budget measures include a jobs credit scheme to encourage businesses to keep workers on payrolls, a reduction of the corporate income tax rate, and personal income tax rebates. The budget incorporates an overall fiscal deficit of S$8.7 billion (USD 5.8 billion),the largest deficit the GOS has ever budgeted. For the first time, part of the deficit will be financed by withdrawing from Singapore's deep fiscal reserves. Local analysts were generally positive about the new measures and the support to vulnerable segments of the economy, but were realistic that the budget would in and of itself be unlikely to spark an economic turnaround. The measures stuck to Singapore's normal practice of only granting temporary benefits to workers rather than constructing a permanent safety net. End Summary. ¶2. (U) Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam presented Singapore's FY2009 budget to Parliament January 22, unveiling a set of aggressively expansionary new budget measures designed to stimulate the domestic economy, cut business costs, and assist retrenched and low-income workers. Singapore's export-led economy has been hard hit by the financial crisis and resulting slowdown in global demand and has already seen three consecutive quarters of negative growth (see reftels). Tharman argued that Singapore's economic recovery depended on recovery in the rest of the world, and that there was little Singapore could do to promote its own recovery. Although the budget includes some fiscal stimulus measures, the primary focus is to avert a sharper downturn, ease the hardship on companies and workers, and lay the groundwork for an eventual recovery. ¶3. (U) Dubbed the "Resilience Package", the new S$20.5 billion worth of budget items weighs in at approximately 8.5 percent of GDP, the largest fiscal boost Singapore has used in a recession. The Ministry of Finance estimates an overall budget deficit of S$8.7 billion (3.5% of GDP) after taking into account a substantial increase in net investment returns and increases in endowments and trust funds. (Note: Singapore changed its constitution in late 2008 to increase the amount of investment income from its past fiscal reserves, managed by its sovereign wealth funds, that it could bring onto the budget. This year the net investment income brought onto the budget will amount to S$7.7 billion, four billion dollars more than the previous year.) In a first for Singapore, the Finance Ministry has received approval to cover S$4.9 billion of the deficit by drawing principle from Singapore's vast fiscal reserves, estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. With the door open to drawing down its past fiscal reserves (over and above the allowed investment income from those reserves),Singapore may augment Budget 2009 with additional off-budget packages later in the year. ¶4. (SBU) Local analysts were generally positive of the GOS's budget proposals, but realistic in what the budget could achieve in promoting economic recovery in Singapore. Alvin Liew at Standard Chartered called it "a budget to help cope with the recession, not end it." JP Morgan noted that although the budget was extremely expansionary relative to Singapore's past fiscal prudence, it was still relatively modest compared to other fiscal packages announced in China, India and Vietnam. In their view, the budget should help cushion vulnerable parts of the economy, and may provide a boost toward the end of the first quarter of 2009 with a greater impact in the second quarter. Nevertheless, JP Morgan this week revised its 2009 GDP growth forecast to -4.0 percent from -2.0 percent, with many other analysts see further downside risks to growth prospects. Resilience Package Targets Jobs -------------- ¶5. (U) The budget focuses on five key goals, each with its own price tag: preserve jobs for Singaporeans (S$5.1 billion), stimulate bank lending (S$5.8 billion),improve corporate cash flow and competitiveness (S$2.6 billion),help households (S$2.6 billion),and improve infrastructure, health and education (S$4.4 billion). The budget includes a combination of additional expenditures and tax cuts. ¶6. (U) Jobs for Singaporeans: The key measure under the budget's plan to preserve jobs is a job credit scheme which will provide a cash grant to employers equivalent to 12 percent on the first SINGAPORE 00000080 002 OF 002 S$2,500 of the monthly salary for each employee. The program is restricted to employers who contribute to employees' Central Provident Fund, Singapore's compulsory social security savings plan. The GOS will issue the cash grant quarterly to encourage companies to keep employees on the payroll rather than shedding workers to cut costs. Tharman said the program would be temporary but could be extended if the need continued. The GOS will also increase an existing subsidy for retraining programs from 80 percent to 90 percent of the program cost. Tharman also announced the GOS's intention to hire 18,000 more civil servants. ¶7. (U) Stimulate Bank Lending: Although Singapore banks have a low non-performing loan rate and are in general healthy, banks have become risk-averse. To improve the flow of credit, the GOS will agree to cover a greater share of any losses from loan defaults. Under its new Bridging Loan Program, the GOS will raise the share of losses it covers from 50 to 80 percent for qualifying loans of up to S$5 million (up from S$500,000 previously). To keep trade flowing, the GOS will also share losses of up to 75 percent for trade financing loans for one year. The government set the budget for these two programs at S$5.8 billion, equivalent to 2.1 percent of total bank loans outstanding as of November 2008. ¶8. (SBU) Improve Competitiveness: The GOS reduced the corporate income tax from 18 to 17 percent. Citigroup analyst Kit Wei Zheng described the tax cut as a key measure to narrow the tax gap with Hong Kong, a competitor with Singapore as a corporate hub. Additional measures to help viable companies stay afloat amid the current crisis include a 40 percent property tax rebate for commercial and industrial property, a rental rebate of 15 percent from government-linked industrial and commercial property agencies, and a freeze on all government fees and charges for a year. ¶9. (SBU) Help Households: Measures to help households cope with the current economic situation include a doubling of Goods & Services Tax (GST) credits that households will receive in 2009, rebates on rentals and service and conservancy charges for those in public housing, and a 40 percent property tax rebate on owner-occupied residential property. The middle-income group was not left out, with the GOS giving a 20-percent income tax rebate for 2009, capped at S$2,000. Citigroup's Kit said he was disappointed that there was no cut in personal income tax rates and said he would have liked to see a tax holiday for residents who lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009. ¶10. (U) Improve Infrastructure: To enhance competitiveness in the longer term, the GOS intends to increase public sector construction projects from S$15 billion in 2008 to S$18-20 billion in 2009. Many of these projects were already in the budget for future years but are being brought forward to help stimulate the economy. The GOS will also increase spending on education by 60 percent over the next five years and spend S$4 billion on healthcare improvements over the next five years. Comment -------------- ¶11. (SBU) This budget was a record size for Singapore, but was not a significant break from the past in terms of structure. As local analysts privately pointed out, the only permanent measure announced was the tax cut aiding the corporate sector rather than developing a more permanent and dependable social safety net for individuals. All programs targeted to workers, including tax rebates, are limited to one year. This is unlikely to give Singaporeans enough comfort to maintain their level of consumption. The only new philosophical ground in this budget is the draw down of fiscal reserves managed by Singapore's sovereign wealth funds. The GOS has realized that the rainy day that the government squirreled away these funds for has now arrived, but is still content with providing flimsy umbrellas rather than permanent shelters. End comment. SHIELDS