Russian experts estimated losses inflicted on the US economy by the longest ever shutdown. Remarkably, the US economy maintains the momentum, being the largest world’s economy despite a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government. US GDP slightly eased a pace of growth in Q4 2018, undershooting the forecast by mere $3 billion. One can point out that it is wrong to assess overall damage through GDP data for the final quarter as the shutdown kicked off on December 22. Its fallout will be exposed later. The budget crisis is sure to trim GDP data for Q1 2019. The most negative forecast suggests that the shutdown has subtracted almost $8 billion. The resilient US economy is expected to recoup losses in the quarters to follow. However, $3 billion accounts for 0.02% of the projected GDP for the whole 2019. The US economy will never be able to regain that loss.
Interestingly, the US President endorsed a temporary budget. It means that the affected agencies, including the US State Department, the Commerce Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, are reopened, though the US President and Congress still cannot agree on funding for Trump’s main campaign pledge to build a security wall along the Mexican border. Nearly 800,000 federal employees were not paid for the five weeks of the shutdown. Besides, a lot of private contractors also were made idle. Nevertheless, Donald Trump decided to spent that $3 billion on the pay to federal employees, citing his respectful attitude to working people.
