Government shutdown could cost US economy billions of dollars a week, analysts say [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Thu 2 Oct 2025 16.24 EDT
Last modified on Thu 2 Oct 2025 21.51 EDT


Senior officials inside Donald Trump’s administration have acknowledged the federal government shutdown, without an end in sight, could hurt the US economy. The damage could be worth billions of dollars each week, according to analysts.

“This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP,” Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told the CNBC financial news network. “We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth and a hit to working America.”

Prolonged failure to reach a deal would be costly.

“We estimate that each week of shutdown would reduce US GDP growth by 0.1 percentage points (ppt) in Q4 (in annualized terms), translating into a $7 billion weekly hit to the economy,” a report by EY Parthenon said, citing the effect of lack of pay for furloughed federal workers, delayed government procurement of goods and services and decline in demand.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/02/government-shutdown-cost-economy-billions