An increasingly vocal population, said country watchers, could have led the government to announce populist measures such as allotting S$3 billion ($2.4 billion) to improving the quality of the country's pre-school education system over five years.
However, some experts noted while the budget does look more pro-citizen on the surface the government has not dramatically shifted its stance, which is being traditionally pro-business.
"It's a more distributive budget – it was balanced between corporate and individual stakeholders, they had quite a bit for both sides. The ones asking for help such as the lower income groups and SMEs got most of their wish list," said Selina Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at OCBC Bank, referring to the 3-year transitional support scheme to help corporates cope with the labor market restructuring. Full story
