The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the longest-running government shutdown in U.S. history came at a price: costing the economy $11 billion with $3 billion that will never be recovered, according to a report released Monday.
For the fourth quarter of 2018, CBO estimates real gross domestic product was reduced by $3 billion compared to what it would have been. The level of real GDP for the first quarter of 2019 is estimated to be $8 billion lower, due to a combination of the partial government shutdown delaying approximately $18 billion in federal spending, suspending services for federal workers and a reduction in demand lowering output in the private sector.
"Risks to the economy were becoming increasingly significant as the shutdown continued," the report read. "Although their precise effects on economic output are uncertain, the negative effects of such factors would have become increasingly important if the partial shutdown had extended beyond five weeks."