A price ceiling occurs when the government or some other regulatory body restricts the price charged for a product or service. It is enforced to make it easier for consumers to purchase the goods or services in question by limiting the price above which businesses may charge. Continuing from above, if a politician enacts a price ceiling at the initial equilibrium price, the result would be that the quantity demanded would rise, while the quantity supplied would decline below the level of the equilibrium price. As a result, a shortage of the product would develop as the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied. When the government imposes a price ceiling, suppliers may be forced to reduce production due to the lower prices they can charge, causing shortages of goods and services as consumers demand more than the available supplies at the price ceiling level.