The US Federal Reserve is all but certain to lower interest rates when it meets on Wednesday, leaving traders’ attention fixed instead on whether the central bank opts to bring to an end its three-year quantitative tightening programme.

Investors were already almost unanimous in expecting the Fed to lower rates by a quarter percentage point to 3.75-4 per cent, even before data on Friday showed US inflation rose to 3 per cent in September, below economists’ expectations of 3.1 per cent.

With a further rate cut fully priced in by the end of the year — borrowing costs were lowered for the first time this year in September — all eyes will be on whether Fed chair Jay Powell signals a halt to the central bank’s balance sheet run-off, a process known as QT.