Federal Reserve officials are set to increase interest rates today for a fifth time this year.
Fed officials are expected to announce their decision on interest rates around 7:15 p.m. They are confident the US expansion is self-supporting and no longer in need of rock-bottom borrowing costs for a boost
Economists are united in the view that the US central bank will nudge benchmark overnight rates higher by a quarter of a per cent age point to 2.25 per cent, part of an effort to lift them to more normal levels after reducing them to 40-year lows.
"It's not a robust expansion, but on the other hand it is an expansion and we are growing fast enough to see improvements in the job market," said Mr David Berson, chief economist at mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae.
The US economy grew at a respectable 3.7 per cent annual rate in the third quarter and job growth has averaged 178,000 over the last three months - fast enough, analysts say, to whittle away at the 5.4 per cent unemployment rate posted in November.
Economists say that as the jobless rate moves lower, the Fed will become more watchful on the inflation front.