Budget Office: Partial Shutdown Cost Economy $3B

The U.S. economy is expected to lose $3 billion from the 35-day partial federal government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding, congressional researchers said on Monday.

The cost of the shutdown will make the economy 0.02 percent smaller than expected in 2019, a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said. But researchers said more significant effects will be felt by individual businesses and workers, particularly the nearly 800,000 federal employees who went without pay.

Overall, the U.S. economy lost about $11 billion during the five-week period, the report said. But the CBO expects $8 billion to be recovered as the government reopens and federal workers receive back pay.

The government reopened fully on Monday. It remained to be seen how lawmakers address border security before the Feb. 15 deadline while avoiding another closure.