Modest Increase for Singapore's 2017 Defence Budget

Singapore has announced a 2017 defence budget of SGD14.2 billion (USD10 billion), a modest increase over spending the previous year.

Announced by the government on 20 February, the allocations represents a 1.6% increase against the initial 2016 defence budget of SGD13.97 billion, which was subsequently revised to SGD13.83 billion, budgetary documents show.

Announcing the budget, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said the small increase is indicative of a government requirement to apply a "2% downward adjustment" across all ministries.

Defence is one of four ministries where the 2% adjustment will be phased in over 2017 and 2018, he said. The other three are home affairs, health, and transport.