WASHINGTON: Fitch Ratings affirmed the United States’ top-flight debt rating on Tuesday, saying the world’s largest economy remains strong and supported by having the leading reserve currency. The country’s 2.4 per cent growth rate last year, depressed by the deep contraction in the oil industry, still topped most other advanced economies, Fitch noted. Although US debt has been rising, ‘it remains well within the tolerance of the ‘AAA’ rating’, it said. “The economy is one of the most productive, dynamic and technologically advanced in the world, underpinned by strong institutions and a favourable business climate.” Fitch projected that without any policy changes the US debt burden will continue to creep higher, from 101 per cent of gross domestic product in 2016 to over 107 per cent over coming decade.