Fitch warns it might downgrade US rating over debt

Fitch said it might revise downward its notation for the United States from the "AAA" level if Congress did not reach agreement on raising the ceiling for the national debt.

Fitch said that failure to raise the limit in time would lead to a formal revision by Fitch of its ratings of US debt instruments, but the agency also said the risk of a US default was extremely low.

However, Fitch also warned that fundamental strengths in the US economy were being undermined by the weight of debt and associated strains.

Fitch warned, that even if a crisis over the ceiling were averted in the immediate future, if the solution did not address the debt in a way which supported growth, then it was set to downgrade the US rating later in the year anyway.

Fitch Ratings said it expects that "Congress will raise the debt ceiling and that the risk of a US sovereign

default remains extremely low." It continued: "Nonetheless, and in line with our previous guidance, failure to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner will prompt a formal review of the US sovereign ratings."

The legal ceiling for the US federal debt reached the limit of USD 16.394 trillion at the end of December. US lawmakers must agree on how to raise

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