US federal government shutdown cost economy more than proposed border wall

President Trump's partial shutdown of the US federal government cost the American economy an estimated $6 billion – $300 million more than his proposed Mexican border wall, a leading financial ratings agency has said.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) released a report titled 'U.S. Government Shutdown Ends, But At What Cost?' on Friday. Their economists estimated the impact the 35-day shutdown had on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was "likely worse than what we had previously expected".

The rating agency had previously said the shutdown would have a "modest impact", wiping around $1.2 billion of real GDP a week off the country's $13 trillion economy. That estimate has now risen.

"Weekly costs likely widened beyond the average weekly cost of $1.2 billion," S&P said in a statement.

"Here, both direct costs, on lost productivity from furloughed government workers, and indirect costs, from lost economic activity to outside businesses because of the shutdown, amplified with each week the government remained closed."

President Trump signed a bill on Friday to officially reopen the federal government for three weeks after the longest closure in American history. He had come under pressure from workers who had missed a second payday. But, the rating's agency has advised further caution.

"Although this funding battle has ended, the next one starts in a few weeks, which may reduce growth expectations if businesses and financial markets begin to expect that Congress and the president will repeat the experience again and again," the agency said.