NEW YORK, May 22. /TASS/. Chances that the US will be able to pay on its obligations by June 15 are low unless the state debt issue is resolved, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in an interview for NBC published Sunday.

"I indicated in my last letter to Congress that we expect to be unable to pay all of our bills in early June and possibly as soon as June 1. And I will continue to update Congress, but I certainly haven’t changed my assessment," Yellen said. "So I think that that’s a hard deadline."

"There’s always uncertainty about tax receipts and spending," she added. "And so it’s hard to be absolutely certain about this, but my assessment is that the odds of reaching June 15th, while being able to pay all of our bills, is quite low."

In January, the US exceeded the legally defined state debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion, forcing the Department of the Treasury to enact emergency measures to continue its financial operations. The US Administration has been calling on the Congress to raise the debt ceiling for several months. Republicans, who control the House, agree to raise the debt ceiling, but only under condition of significant budget cuts. The White House rejected these demands, saying that, while it is ready to discuss spending cuts, the lawmakers must raise the debt ceiling without preconditions.