It’s time for the British Parliament to have a say. MEPs will speak tonight, from 8 p.m. (Paris time), on the Brexit agreement, initially scheduled for last December. In the event of rejection, a hypothesis widely considered, Theresa May will try to force a second vote in the House of Commons (according to the British daily The Sun) in order to avoid an exit without agreement, or even no Brexit at all. According to the Sun, Angela Merkel has proposed, in the event that the Prime Minister failed tonight, that the European Union should help her by trying to convince Leo Varadkar (head of the Irish government) to set a deadline for the backstop. It takes 318 votes in favor of the agreement to win the vote.

China will step up its efforts to revive its growth. After new disappointing economic statistics (a 7.6% drop in imports in December and a 4.4% drop in exports, while analysts expected increases of 5% and 3% respectively), Beijing announced new measures to support its economy. The People's Bank of China has planned to increase the availability of credit, infrastructure investments, as well as reduce taxes and various other charges.

The American administration will decide on Jim Yong-Kim's successor. While the President of the World Bank resigned last week and is due to leave office on February 1, Ivanka Trump's name was circulating as a potential candidate for the position. This information was denied by a White House official, who claims that Trump's daughter will just "help in the US appointment process since she has worked closely with World Bank management for the past two years". Indeed, it is traditionally the United States (but rarely the President's daughter) that appoints the President of the World Bank, while Europe decides the head of the IMF.

In other news. The leaders of the ECB and the Fed must speak out today. France's budget deficit widened in 2018 to €76.1 billion (from €67.7 billion in 2017). German economic growth stood at +1.5% in 2018 (after +2.2% in 2017), the lowest rate in 5 years. The ECB has decided to impose a deadline for the collection of toxic loans on banks under its supervision, which will be specific to each banking institution. Trump is concerned about buying a round of burgers for an American football team, but offers no solution to unblock the shutdown, now the longest in history. After threatening to harm Turkey’s economy, the American President talks about "great potentiall” for economic development with Turkey...