US Federal Reserve policy-makers resumed a two-day meeting today that is widely expected to conclude with a decision to hold interest rates steady along with a fresh warning on inflation.
The Federal Open Market Committee began the second day of meetings this morning, and the US central bank is expected to announce its decision this evening.
While the rate decision holds little drama for financial markets, any hints the Fed might give on its future policy course will be scrutinized closely.
After a more than two-year long campaign of interest rate increases, the Fed moved to the sidelines in August and again held overnight rates steady at 5.25 per cent in September.
However, officials have kept the possibility of more rate hikes on the table as they continued to warn of the risk inflation could stay unacceptably high.
One FOMC voter, Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker, has dissented against the decisions to leave rates unchanged at the past two meetings, saying more needed to be done to bring inflation down.
A month ago, financial markets had been thinking a housing-led slowdown in US economic growth could lead to a series of rate reductions beginning early next year.
Recently, however, markets have begun to price in some chance that the Fed might raise credit costs again to deal with persistent price pressures.