Washington, Sept. 20 (Reuters): US Federal Reserve policy-makers were expected to look past the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and boost interest rates for an 11th straight time on Tuesday to hold inflation at bay.

Earlier speculation that the damage the storm wrought on the US Gulf Coast might prompt a hiatus in the Fed's rate-rise campaign has given way to broad expectations that the central bank would push ahead with its policy tightening.

As of Monday, 18 of 22 Wall Street firms that deal directly with the Fed saw another quarter-percentage point hike.

The Fed is expected to release its rate decision along with an analysis of economic conditions and the level of policy accommodation at about 2:15 p.m.

Economists, in recent days, have come around to the view that the Fed will lift rates, persuaded the policy-setting members of the Federal Open Market Committee have their eye on the longer-run prize of controlling potential inflation.

Fed officials have done little to dissuade them. “The Fed has and must have a commitment to price stability,” San Francisco Fed president Janet Yellen said on September 8, days after the storm damaged Gulf Coast oil refineries and distribution facilities. “The uncertainties on the upside (for inflation) have only gotten bigger since Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.”

Chicago futures markets on Monday priced in a 90 per cent chance for a quarter-percentage point rise in the federal funds rate, the Fed’s primary monetary policy tool. It now stands at a four-year high of 3.5 per cent after a course of 10 gradual increases that began 15 months ago.