The cost of the administrative partial closure of the federal government that lasted for five weeks resulted in a non-recoverable cost of 3,000 million dollars to the economy of the country, according to a report released today by the Office of Congressional Budgets (CBO).
The report of the CBO, non-partisan organ of Congress, noted that the US economy lost a total of 11,000 million dollars during the partial suspension of the federal administration that began on December 22.
“Although most of the real GDP lost during the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first of 2019 will finally be recovered, we estimate that close to 3,000 million will not be recovered,” Keith Hall, director of the agency, said in a statement.
Regarding the cumulative effect in the projections of economic growth for all 2019, the CBO estimated that it will be 0.02 percent lower than anticipated and will be located at an annual rate of 2.3%.
“The closure slowed down economic activity mainly due to the loss of federal workers’ contribution to GDP, the delay in federal spending on goods and services, and the reduction in aggregate demand (which in turn slowed the activity of the private sector ), “the document said.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers left unpaid due to the partial closure of the United States Administration returned to work today.
However, the agreement to reopen it is of a temporary nature since the White House and the Congress gave themselves a period of three weeks to prevent a new paralysis.
In an interview on Sunday with The Wall Street Journal, the president, Donald Trump, was not optimistic that a deal would be reached.
“Personally I think it’s less than 50-50, but there are very good people in that game,” said the president.
Trump agreed last Friday to approve the current three-week budget extension, which does not include funds for his controversial promise of a wall on the border with Mexico, the source of the disagreement with the Democrats, after nearly 800,000 public workers ceased charge your second consecutive biweekly payroll.
The reopening agreed between Democrats and Republicans and endorsed by Trump grants funds until February 15, new deadline. (EFEUSA) .-
