WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is telling Congress that the administration will begin taking steps next week to avoid a default on the nation's debt until Congress votes to raise the government's borrowing limit. Lew said those measures should provide enough manoeuvring room to let the government keep borrowing until after Labor Day. Private economists have estimated that the government may be able to keep from breaching the debt limit until late October or November. In part, that's because the government in recent months has collected more revenue than expected.

By Anna Yukhananov (Reuters) - Dysfunction in Washington is one of the biggest drags on the U.S. economy, undermining confidence and crimping growth, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Tuesday. "One of the most significant speed bumps for growth is coming straight from Washington, where some political leaders continue to generate one manufactured crisis after the next," Lew said in remarks prepared for delivery at the City Club of Cleveland.

By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Annual U.S. deficits under a new plan from Senate Democrats would be in the $400-600 billion (268-402 billion pounds) range for much of the next decade, a level they say would allow stronger near-term job growth than Republicans' balanced-budget vision.

China set an unchanged growth target of 7.5 percent for 2013, Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday, as officials seek to nurture recovery while revamping the model of the world's second-largest economy. Increasing material prosperity is a key part of the ruling Communist Party's claim to legitimacy in China, where hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty over the past three decades.