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WASHINGTON (AP) - It's been nearly a year since the Federal Reserve last changed interest rates and there are no expectations the central bank is going to deviate from its stay-the-course policy any time soon.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues were expected to announce at the end of Wednesday's meeting that they decided for the eighth straight time to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25 percent.
That is where it has been since the Fed last changed rates June 29, when it raised the funds rate for a 17th consecutive time over a two-year period. That was the longest stretch of Fed rate hikes on record as the central bank sought to slow the economy and combat rising inflation pressures.
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