RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a hit to the U.S. economy.
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MONTAGNE: Standard and Poor's estimates that the 16-day-long government shutdown cost the U.S. economy roughly $24 billion. Because of that, the credit rating agency says it is lowering its estimate for U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter to just over 2 percent. That's down .6 percentage points from its estimate before the shutdown. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.