Economists have given Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen amission for next week's press conference: Explain what “gradual”means.

The Federal Open Market Committee in September projected aninterest rate policy path that, including December, averages fourinterest rate hikes a year through the end of 2018. That's half thepace of the last tightening campaign, when rates were raised by aquarter point every meeting from June 2004 until peaking two yearslater at 5.25 percent.

Sixty-four percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News fromDec. 8 to Dec. 10 said the quarterly forecasts that officials willpublish Wednesday will show a slower path of increases than theirSeptember estimates. That's more in line with financial marketswhere prices on futures contracts for three-monthEurodollars—dollar deposits held at banks outside the U.S.—indicateabout two increases in 2016.