Treasury sees debt limit reached near end of year (by Greg Robb)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Treasury Department said Wednesday that it expects to reach the debt limit near the end of the year. With extraordinary measures, the government will be able to meet its obligations until early in 2013, the department said. Increasing the debt ceiling is another challenge facing Congress after the presidential election. The politics of raising the limit may complicate negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff, the tax hikes and spending cuts set to take place at the start of the year. Treasury said it expects the first floating-rate auction to be at least one year away. It said no decision had been made about allowing negative rates at bill auctions. The comments came as the Treasury announced it would sell $72 billion in notes and bonds next week in its quarterly refunding auctions. Treasury has held the refunding size steady for two years.