3 biggest things to watch out for in Singapore Budget 2014

Expect tweaks to healthcare policies.

According to Maybank Kim Eng, Singapore is expected to unveil its Budget 2014 on 21 February. Maybank believes the focus will be on these three things.

Here's more:

 More targeted assistance for the poor by strengthening the social safety nets.

 Tweaks to healthcare policies. New measures may be introduced to address rising healthcare costs in Singapore. In his National Day Rally Speech in Aug 2013, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong outlined several policy changes to the healthcare sector so that private healthcare is more accessible to Singaporeans. Favourable policy tweaks on this front may be positive for the healthcare sector.

 Raising economic productivity especially in the SME sector via policy changes. These include larger financial incentives and/or subsidies to encourage the use of technology in labour-intensive sectors such as construction, retail, transportation, hotels and restaurants, and manufacturing.

Broadly speaking, we do not expect Budget 2014 to have any major implications for the stock market as it has never been a platform to make transformative changes to the economy.