INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on many countries, both in terms of lives lost and economic disruption through the impact on jobs, incomes and livelihoods.

In the long battle against Covid-19, the Singapore government prioritized the protection of both lives and livelihoods. Singapore's approach at the outset of the pandemic was to control the spread of the virus so as to minimize deaths and prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed. Concurrently, substantial financial support was provided to keep businesses and households afloat.

Singapore's experience of SARS in 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2008–9 informed its approach to dealing with Covid-19 and the economic fallout. Task forces comprising government ministers and civil servants were quickly set up to coordinate policies, both for infection control and management of the economy. State assistance covered jobs, citizens, households and businesses. The assistance was a buffer against job and income losses, designed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the economy and labour market. To finance this exceptional support, the Singapore government enacted five budgets in 2020 and drew on the nation's Past Reserves1 for the first time since the global financial crisis.

Subsequently, with Covid-19 becoming endemic, it became necessary to open up the economy in phases, accepting a rise in infections while seeking to minimize deaths and serious illness. Singapore's reopening was aided by the efficient roll-out of its vaccine and booster programme, as the more transmissible Delta and Omicron strains of the virus made a zero-Covid policy untenable for a country heavily dependent on global connectivity.

Singapore emerged from the pandemic with a relatively low mortality rate (below 0.1 per cent as of end-2022, compared with the global average of about 1 per cent).2 It also significantly mitigated the fallout of the pandemic on the economy and labour market. However, the longer-term impact of the pandemic in areas such as inequality and foreign workforce policies will require sustained attention.