Congressional Budget Office says storm could also knock up to 1 percent off economic growth.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hurricane Katrina could cost the U.S. over 400,000 jobs and shave up to 1 percent off the nation's economic growth in the second half of the year, the Congressional Budget Office said.
The CBO said much of the loss will come from disruption of oil production. It added that the economy, growing at a projected rate of 3.7 percent in 2005, had been growing steadily at the time of the storm.
"The devastation in the Gulf Coast region is unlikely to knock the economy far from that course," the CBO said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, dated Wednesday. "While making specific estimates is fraught with uncertainty, evidence to date suggests that overall economic effects will be significant but not overwhelming."
The estimate from the CBO, the non-partisan budget arm of Congress, comes as economists and policy-makers wrestle with the economic impact of the storm. [Read more - CNN Money]
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