Janet Yellen issues warning to Congress as US nears debt limit

Treasury secretary says ‘extraordinary measures’ needed to avoid default, and urges lawmakers to raise borrowing limit

Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, said her agency will need to start taking “extraordinary measures”, or special accounting maneuvers intended to prevent the nation from hitting the debt ceiling, as early as 14 January, in a letter sent to congressional leaders Friday afternoon.

“Treasury expects to hit the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23,” Yellen wrote in a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership, at which point extraordinary measures would be used to prevent the government from breaching the nation’s debt ceiling – which has been suspended until 1 January.