Wall Street ratings agency Fitch said it would not downgrade the US government's top-notch credit rating after Congress passed legislation Tuesday to raise the federal debt ceiling, dpa reported.
After the House of Reprepresentatives approved a debt-ceiling increase on Monday, the Senate voted the measure through on Tuesday, and the White House said President Barack Obama would sign it into law "as soon as possible."
Obama's Treasury Department had said that without an increase by Tuesday in the 14.3-trillion-dollar debt cap, it would run out of money to pay bills, possibly including payments to bondholders.
In a statement on its website, Fitch Ratings said that with passage of the two-stage increase in the debt limit by up to 2.4 trillion dollars, "commensurate with its 'AAA' rating, the risk of sovereign default remains extremely low."
The debt-ceiling deal includes nearly 1 trillion dollars in spending cuts over the next 10 years, with a provision for further cuts by the end of the year of at least 1.2 trillion dollars.
"While the agreement is clearly a step in the right direction," Fitch wrote, "the United States, as in much of Europe, must also confront tough choices on tax and spending against a weak economic back drop, if the budget deficit and government debt is to be cut to safer levels over the medium term."