The US Treasury has warned that there could be catastrophic economic effects worldwide, if Congress does not increase the country's borrowing limit in the coming days, so the United States does not default on its financial obligations. As the US approaches its current 16.7 trillion dollar debt ceiling, the Treasury issued a report outlining the calamity, it said, could occur, if it runs out of money to pay the country's bills, including interest on money the US has borrowed overseas. The Treasury said, a default would be unprecedented and has the potential to be catastrophic, credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, the US interest rates could skyrocket, the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world, and there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse. The US government is already in the fourth day of a partial shutdown in a spending impasse between President Barack Obama, a Democrat and his Republican opponents in Congress. Obama said, Congress needs to act quickly to avert a new crisis over the debt ceiling, which the country could reach on October 17.