() — United States Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, urged this thursday Congress to raise its debt ceiling, warning that a US default would produce an “economic and financial catastrophe” that would trigger a global economic recession and could undermine its global leadership.
“A default would threaten our hard-won gains of recent years in our recovery from the pandemic. And it would trigger a global recession that would push us back much further,” Yellen said Thursday in Niigata, Japan, where spoke before a meeting of ministers Finance and central bank governors of the G7.
“It could also undermine US global economic leadership and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests,” he added.
Yellen recalled that the US Congress raised or suspended the debt limit almost 80 times since 1960 and urged him to act quickly to do it again.
Yellen He laid out his “three fundamental priorities” for the G7, one of which is to strengthen the world economy to reduce inflation. The other two priorities are redoubling the commitment to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia and discussing “long-term work to strengthen economic resilience and security,” Yellen said.
