Hassett Says Lost October Data Means ‘Cloudy’ Economic Outlook

White House National Economic Director Kevin Hassett said the record-long government shutdown means that some of the economic data that was supposed to be collected in October may never be recorded, making it difficult to get a comprehensive look at the health of the US economy.

“I’ve been told that some of the surveys were never actually completed, so we’ll never, perhaps, even know what happened in that month,” Hassett told CNBC on Tuesday. “We’re going to be staring a little bit in cloudy, cloudy weather for a while until we get the data agencies back up.”

Statistical agencies, including ...