By Nick Timiraos

The December consumer-price index isn't likely to change the Federal Reserve's wait-and-see posture, because officials will likely want to see more evidence that inflation is leveling off and then declining before cutting rates.

The central bank's next policy meeting is at the end of January.

The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate at its last three meetings, most recently in December, to a range between 3.5% and 3.75%, even though inflation stopped declining last year. Officials lowered rates because they were more concerned about risks of a sharper-than-anticipated slowdown in the labor market.

To resume rate cuts, Fed officials are likely to need to see either new evidence that job-market conditions are weakening or that price pressures are fading. It could take at least a couple more months of inflation reports for the latter to materialize.