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This Singapore Budget 2026 should look very different
In a world more volatile and less predictable, public coffers should build buffers and aid with transformation.
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If resilience was the theme of the early 2020s, the mid-2020s will demand something harder: reinvention, says the writer.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Selena Ling
The global economy has developed a mischievous habit of embarrassing forecasters. Year after year, analysts predict sluggish growth, and year after year, the world manages to outperform its own obituary. Singapore, too, has quietly outpaced its typically conservative estimates.
Global growth held steady at 2.7 per cent, despite announced sweeping tariff hikes. Despite a forecast in April 2025 of 0 to 2 per cent growth, the Singapore economy grew by a whopping 4.8 per cent – a figure likely to be revised upwards following December’s upbeat industrial production data.
