The International Monetary Fund on Friday urged the United States to raise its federal debt ceiling to
avert a default.
"Should Congress prove unwilling to raise the debt ceiling, there would be a risk of a major adverse market reaction," the IMF said in its updated Fiscal Monitor report. ' "An increase in the debt ceiling is neither avoidable-it would need to be lifted under all proposed plans-nor exceptional, as it has been increased more than 70 times
over the past few decades, and 10 times during the last 10 years," the IMF said.
The world's largest economy has hit the 14.29-trillion-U.S.-dollar legal ceiling on borrowings and the U.S. Treasury is taking extraordinary measures to buy some time prior to Aug. 2 for Democrats and Republicans to reach a deal and ward off the default risk.