WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Federal Reserve (Fed) is poised this week to accelerate its most drastic steps in three decades to attack inflation by making it costlier to borrow — for a car, a home, a business deal, a credit card purchase — all of which will compound Americans' financial strains and likely weaken the economy.

Yet with inflation having surged to a 40-year high, the United States central bank has come under extraordinary pressure to act aggressively to slow spending and curb the price spikes that are bedeviling households and companies.