The US Congress on early Wednesday morning approved Trump administration’s fiscal stimulus worth USD 2 trillion to deal with the effects of the deadly Coronavirus.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are done. We have a deal,” White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland told reporters around 1 a.m.
This, though is now expected to be passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in the next few days.
This USD 2 trillion will be used amongst others to send USD 1200 directly into the accounts of certain eligible Americans and about USD 500 to some eligible minors.
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USD 367 million shall be earmarked to extend loans to small businesses.
A sizeable chunk of it which includes USD 500 billion will be used to fund industries, cities and states and stimulate growth after the deadly virus wiped out all forms of economic activities.
Hospitals are expected to receive about USD 130 billion and unemployment insurance about USD 125 billion.
The civil aviation industry had asked for a bailout totalling USD 50 billion as many cancellations and lockdowns had affected the sector.
This plan has been agreed upon after five days of intense negotiations between the Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnunchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell (Republican Party) and the Minority leader Charles Schumer (Democrat party).
The trademark indices received this positively with the Dow Jones shooting up by 2100 points.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex too had fallen steeply due to the delay in the announcement of this stimulus earlier this week.
The World Health Organization also termed the situation in US as worrisome and warned that it may be the next epicentre even as the number of cases have surged beyond 40,000.