CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to leave benchmark lending rates unchanged at its policy meeting on Tuesday and will probably signal that borrowing costs will stay steady for several months.Since the Fed's last rate-setting meeting on August 5, the economy has shown signs of weakening while price pressures have begun to recede -- elements that could prompt some changes to the central bank's post-meeting statement.
"They will acknowledge that the downside risks to economic growth have increased, that the financial markets remain fragile, and that the upside risks to inflation have eased slightly," said Steven Wood, an economist at Insight Economics in Danville, California.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee slashed benchmark overnight rates 3.25 percentage points to the current low 2 percent in seven steps between mid-September 2007 and the end of April.
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