The US Federal Reserve is due to open its last policy meeting chaired by Ben Bernanke, with another stimulus cut widely expected.
Bernanke, whose eight-year tenure as Fed chairman has included the deepest US economic and financial crisis since the 1930s, is stepping down on January 31 after putting in motion the wind-down of the central banks' unprecedented stimulus program.
The taper of the Fed's asset-purchase program, which has been aimed at tamping down interest rates to support economic growth, charts new territory in central bank policy, and the Fed has signalled it will proceed cautiously to avoid undermining recovery from the Great Recession.
The Fed took the first step in December, deciding to cut the $US85 billion ($A97 billion) a month operation by $US10 billion, and most economists expect it to cut another $US10 billion in Tuesday's meeting.
But the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting comes amid strains in emerging-market currencies, in part due to the Fed's stimulus cuts, which are pushing up interest rates.
To fight an outflow of funds pressing its currency down, in India the central bank surprised with a quarter-point rate hike to 8.0 percent, and in Turkey the central bank signalled it would hike rates at a late-night crisis meeting.
But those emerging-market woes appeared unlikely to sway the Fed from further tapering.
For the Fed, no rate increase is on the horizon for this year. Having kept the key federal funds rate near zero for five years, the majority of FOMC members predict conditions may be ripe for monetary tightening only in 2015, when the US unemployment rate is projected to fall firmly below their 6.5 per cent threshold.
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