The Day at a Glance | September 18 2020

The Top

· Sessions in the US Congress conclude on October 2nd; there are still no agreements regarding a new fiscal stimulus.

· Trump announced $13 billion dollars of aid for the US agricultural sector.

· The FED considers extending limits of dividend payments on behalf of banks until the end of 2020 given the economic uncertainty.

Economic environment

Two weeks remain for US Congress and legislators to come to an agreement and extend unemployment aid. The US economy still needs fiscal stimulus and the legislative period will come to an end on October 2nd in the House of Representatives and one week later in the Senate. President Donald Trump has admitted that he would agree with a stimulus of more than $1 trillion dollars after giving a $1.5 trillion dollar bipartisan proposal the go-ahead due to pressures from the electorate. Neither of the parties wants to show up at the election without having voted for a plan, but the differences can still be seen. Republican, conservative legislators criticize the bipartisan project presented this week and refuse to back it up, which was enough to avoid its approval in the Senate. Democrats, for their part, plan to vote on a $3.4 trillion dollar proposal – approved in May by the House of Representatives – with the intention of re-starting discussions. There have been no direct negotiations between Republicans, Democrats or the White House in the last month, which has brought criticism from the electorate. Recent figures regarding retail sales showed a slowdown in consumption`s recovery during August, the first month in which no unemployment aid was given since the start of the pandemic and the FED has warned that the economic recovery largely depends on fiscal stimulus from Washington.