5 S’pore News That You Should Know About That Were Reported Yesterday (18 February 2020)

Let’s face it: in this social media world, exciting and viral news like a cat feeding a baby bear would often appear in your Facebook news feed, while important news like the GDP growth of Singapore this year wouldn’t get the same reach.

It’s understandable since social media platforms would prioritise engaging and viral contents to keep users in their platform.

In order to ensure that you’d still know about important news instead just social news, below are the top five Singapore news that was reported yesterday which you should know, simplified for you in a bite-sized format:

S’pore Will Suffer Largest Deficit Ever Since 2009

With the Covid-19 virus outbreak and a bleak outlook on the global economy, DPM Heng Swee Keat says Singapore will run an “overall budget deficit of  S$10.95 billion or around 2.1 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP)”.

In layman terms, a budget deficit occurs when spending exceeds revenue.

This will be the biggest deficit since the 2009 financial crisis.

However, he emphasised that the government has accumulated a sizable surplus since the start of their term (2016) so there will be no need to dig into Singapore’s national reserves.

Experts spoken to observed that the two Covid-19 packages make up more than half of the estimated budget deficit.

It was also added that there seems to be enough surplus for “off-budget” Covid-19 packages should the situation worsen.

You can read more here.

States Times Review Facebook Page Blocked

States Times Review has clashed with the government several times, with the most recent being over the Covid-19 outbreak in Singapore.

On 15 Feb, the Page was branded as a Declared Online Location which makes it illegal for the owner to earn money from the page.

Two days later, the Pofma office ordered Facebook to disable access to the States Times Review Facebook Page for Singapore users.

A statement read that the page is guilty of publishing falsehoods multiple times and refused to comply with correction notices.

You can read more here.

5 People Arrested For Face Mask Scam, Police Investigating MedicalLex

Due to Covid-19, face masks have become one of the, if not the, most treasured commodity in Singapore.

Besides profiteering, face mask scams have been running rampant on Carousell, the e-commerce platform.

On 18 Feb 2020, the Singapore Police Force said that they have arrested four men and one woman for their involvement in five different e-commerce scams.

One of them was involved in more than 40 cases.

Meanwhile, the police also said that they are looking into MedicalLex, the company which failed to deliver the masks that people have bought from them.

You can find out more here.

Three in Four White Collar Jobs in S’pore Occupied By Locals & PRs

Josephine Teo said in Parliament that out of four white-collar jobs, three of them are occupied by Singaporeans.

These jobs are in “growth industries” such as healthcare, finance and insurance services, and information and communications.

She went on to emphasise that to help Singaporeans and Singapore, the focus is to help them grow into the jobs instead of getting rid of foreign workers and PRs.

That will simply drive employers away from Singapore.

She also noted that the various job placement schemes, like Adapt & Grow and Workforce Singapore has helped nearly 60,000 people.

Latest Graduate Employment Survey found that nine out of ten graduates from universities and polytechnics found a job within 6 months of graduation or National Service.

You can read more here.

4 New COVID-19 Cases in S’pore Today; Good ‘Coz All Linked to Previously Confirmed Cases

While the downward trend of new COVID-19 cases in Singapore has been broken today (it was 9, 5 then 3), all the four new cases reported today are linked to previously confirmed cases, so it’s still good news.

In addition, there are 5 more people who are discharged, which means 29 people have since recovered.

Out of the 81 patients, 29 of them have fully recovered and are discharged. 4 of them are in ICU while the condition of the remaining 48 patients are either stable or improving.

You can read more here.

Do come back tomorrow to the Goody Feed app so you’ll always stay informed!