Singapore: In a welcome move, the Singapore government has announced a one-time payment to those aspiring parents who want to have babies during the coronavirus pandemic.
The country’s deputy prime minister said the incentive would help reassure people who face financial pressure and are worried about their jobs, CNN Business reported.
“We have received feedback that COVID-19 has caused some aspiring parents to postpone their parenthood plans,” country’s deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat said. “This is fully understandable, especially when they face uncertainty with their income.
Heng asserted that the payment will help parents meet additional expenses, but didn’t spell out how much would be paid out.
Like many other countries, the island city-state’s economy has been thrown into a deep recession by the global pandemic. In the steepest drop on record, Singapore’s GDP shrank 12.6% in the second quarter.
Singapore has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, with the fertility rate being just 1.14 births per woman. According to the World Bank, that puts Singapore it level with Hong Kong, with only South Korea and Puerto Rico having lower rates.
