NEW YORK, November 9. /TASS/. The United States’ economic growth may fall by half is the shutdown continues, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

"We've seen an impact [of the shutdown] on the economy from day one, but it's getting worse and worse. We had a fantastic economy under President Trump the past two quarters. And now there are estimates that the economy, economic growth for this quarter, could be cut by as much as half if the shutdown continues," he told ABC News.

The US federal government partially suspended work at midnight on October 1 due to a lack of funding after the ruling Republican party failed to reach agreement with the Democrats in the US Congress on some expenditure items, including healthcare. The parties accuse each other of provoking the shutdown and prolonging it for political purposes and an agreement is yet to be reached.

Since 1977, funding for the federal government has been interrupted more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The current US government shutdown has become the longest in the country’s history, breaking the record set in 2018-2019 during Donald Trump’s first term as president (2017-2021).