watch nowSINGAPORE — Setting Singapore's budget was challenging this year, as it required a "very delicate balancing act" to ensure fiscal prudence while helping Singaporeans deal with rising costs, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong told CNBC in an exclusive interview.
"It's particularly challenging this year, because it really was a very delicate balancing act to manage due to the different competing demands and pressures," Lawrence Wong, who is also deputy prime minister, said Wednesday, a day after announcing Singapore's budget to Parliament.
But yet, we can't taper down too quickly, because the economy is still weak," Wong told CNBC's Martin Soong on "Squawk Box Asia."
Our economy has recovered back to pre-Covid levels, but our fiscal position is still quite weak, and it is still very tight.
Lawrence Wong Singapore foreign ministerSingapore expects a slight deficit of $2 billion Singapore dollars ($1.5 billion), or 0.3% of GDP, for fiscal year 2022.