The recent partial US government shutdown cost the American economy twice as much as the money President Donald Trump had requested to build a wall on the border with Mexico, the Congressional Budget Office has revealed.
The 35-day impasse, which began on December 22 after congressional Democrats refused to give Trump $5.7 billion for the barrier, set back the economy by $11 billion, the CBO said in a report on Monday.
The shutdown’s impact on economic activity amounted to $3 billion, or 0.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), during the fourth quarter of 2018 and was projected to go all the way up to $8 billion, or 0.2 percent, in the first quarter of 2019.
Trump was forced to reopen the government on Friday by accepting a temporary spending bill that would keep federal agencies open for three weeks, giving enough time to Republican and Democratic leaders to try and reach a deal on the US-Mexico border wall.
The CBO said while the…