UK's Hunt says 'absolutely devastating' if US failed to raise debt ceiling

British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday it would be "absolutely devastating" if the United States failed to reach agreement to raise its debt ceiling and had its gross domestic product "knocked off track".

Hunt also said the impact of sanctions on the Russia over its invasion of Ukraine had not been as effective as military support for Kyiv and that the Group of Seven (G7) rich countries want to "de-risk" relations with China, rather than to decouple from all trade.

Hunt was speaking to reporters before meeting U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the sidelines of a gathering of G7 finance chiefs in Japan.