As the coronavirus epidemic continues spreading around the world, the United States government together with Congress negotiated a series of economic measures with the purpose of boosting the United State's economic performance.
“We had a good reception on Capitol Hill. We’re going to be working with Republican and Democratic leadership to move a legislative package,” said US Vice President, Mike Pence.
The measures they're discussing includes a payroll tax relief and undertaking executive action to help workers and small businesses.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who is representing the republican party on this negotiation, met with the Democratic representative, Nancy Pelosi to discuss those matters.
“We’re going to work together on a bipartisan basis to figure out how we can get things done quickly that are going to help the Americans that are most impacted by this and small and medium-sized businesses that are impacted,” he stated.
Pelosi told the media that the purpose of their meeting was determining where the common ground between the republican and democrat parties was, adding that the democrats were not going to support any stimulus package that contains “trickle-down solutions that only help a few.”
At the moment, there are more than 1000 reported coronavirus infections in the United States and the death toll stands at more than 30 victims. The outbreak is already disrupting the American daily life, as conferences, classes, concerts, and political rallies are being canceled in order to avoid the spread of the illness.
By 6:26 GMT the US dollar went down against the Canadian Dollar by 0.09 percent, at 1.3709. Conversely, it dropped by 0.62 percent against the Swiss Franc, at 0.9339, and lost 1.06 percent against the Japanese Yen, at 104.51.
Australia to Implement a Stimulus Package
According to the Australian media, the Australian government is likely to announce a stimulus package of about $15bn-$20bn on Thursday. The package would include $500 one-off cash payments for pensioners and unemployed.
There are around 133 reported coronavirus infections in Australia and 3 Australian citizens have died so far.
By 6:47 GMT the Australian dollar went down by 0.08 percent against the US dollar, hitting the 0.6500 level.