IN THE run-up to any given general election (GE) – Singapore’s next one is due by November 2025 – almost every Budget might look like an election Budget, to suitably paranoid eyes.

Yet from both an objective fiscal perspective and a more subjective reading of its announcements and schemes, Budget 2024 certainly seems to facilitate – if not indicate – a GE being called before Budget 2025 rolls around.

Firstly, on the fiscal front, an end-of-term Budget is informed by the need for the government to balance the Budget over its full term.