Singapore to pay citizens to bear babies during pandemic

Singapore will offer a preliminary payment to parents who are trying to bear children during the period of Coronobrus. Z. The country's prime minister said the promotional move seeks to calm parents pending financial pressures of pandemic and fears of losing their jobs.

We've learned that the David-19 pandemic has caused those who want to become parents to postpone parental plans. This is fully understandable, especially with the uncertainty about their revenues”, Heng Swe Keat said yesterday in parliament.

Heng added that preliminary payments would help at expenses, without specifying what the amount will be.

Despite the health system's positive response to pandemic, Singapore's economy has fallen into recession.

GDP contracted by 12.6 per cent in the second quarter year-on-year. But Singapore also has one of the smallest birth rates in the world -- a statistics which many governments have tried to change over the years.

The fertility measure is only 1.14 births for each woman, according to national statistics.

For a country that wants to populate, the birth rate should be at least 2.1 babies for every woman capable of birth.