The Fed is poised to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
A rate hike will be a sign that top Fed officials think the U.S. economy is now strong enough to be weaned from the extraordinary level of support provided by the central bank.
Fed officials wrap up their December meeting on Wednesday. Markets expect them to hike the Federal Funds Rate, which is what banks charge to lend to each other overnight, by 0.25 percentage point to a range of 0.25 to 0.5 per cent.
When the Fed slashed rates to near zero in December 2008, few anticipated that they would stay there for seven years. Past surveys show that many economists expected the first hike to be in 2010.
But the recovery from the worst economic downturn since the 1930s has been a long haul.