U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke arrives at the Federal Reserve building in Washington on Tuesday morning (December 11) ahead of a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to set interest rates.

Bernanke recently voiced support for numerical unemployment and inflation thresholds, in a signal that he backs adopting them to help guide expectations about when the Fed will start raising interest rates.

The U.S. central bank has said it expects to keep overnight rates near zero until at least mid-2015 and that policy will remain highly accommodative for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens.

The Fed will announce its latest decision on monetary policy on Wednesday (December 12).