Yesterday's Budget sets aside a substantial $6.4 billion to support businesses, workers, families and front-line agencies in the face of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. But Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat has also signalled the Government's determination to look beyond current difficulties through the Transformation and Growth effort, costing $8.3 billion over three years. Climate change, too, remains high on the Government's ameliorative agenda. Collectively, these measures should help bolster and reinforce Singaporeans' confidence during the coronavirus outbreak, and sustain their belief in the fundamental soundness of the economy and of policies to position Singapore for the eventual economic upturn.

Clearly, the immediate focus of concern is the social and economic impact of the viral outbreak. This is not only a public health concern but an economic challenge as well. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has downgraded the gross domestic product forecast from between 0.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent, to between minus 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent, which raises the possibility of a recession. Tourism, aviation, retail, food services and point-to-point transport services are sectors that have been affected directly by the crisis, but it also has disrupted supply chains and created ripple effects on other sectors. Employers are worried about profitability; some might be contemplating survivability itself. Workers, already battling structural forces of change and disruption exacerbated by the United States-China trade dispute, are concerned about the massive virus-borne assault on their economic security.