Asia bourses gain ahead of key Fed decision Tuesday 03:10 GMT. Predictions that the Federal Reserve will defer any tapering decision to 2014 gave risk assets a boost in Asia. Only a third of economists polled by Bloomberg anticipate that Ben Bernanke, in his final meeting as Fed chairman, will pull back on the US central bank's bond-buying programme. The Fed will announce on Wednesday whether or not it will begin scaling back, or tapering , its $85bn-a-month quantitative easing programme. Recent signs of improvement in the US economy, particularly in the labour market, have increased the chances of a move - although many analysts remain unconvinced. "We think the Fed can afford to - and will - wait several months before tapering QE, gathering evidence that the recovery is entrenched and that inflation is picking up," wrote economists at Standard Chartered. With hopes of continued support from the Fed, plus fresh economic data in the US supportive of a recovery, the S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent in New York, and that sentiment crossed over to Asia. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was up 1 per cent while the broader Topix gained 0.7 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.4 per cent and South Korea's Kospi Composite gained 0.8 per cent. In Sydney, early gains for the S&P/ASX 200 withered to just 0.1 per cent after two government policy updates. Australia's government is forecasting a A$47bn hole in the 2013-14 budget and said deficits could persist for the next decade. Treasurer Joe Hockey said the nation is facing "a challenging fiscal and economic mountain" as the economy confronts the end of the mining boom and a series of what he called political errors by the previous government. Also, minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's December 3 meeting reiterated the view that the Australian dollar is "uncomfortably high" and economic growth has underwhelmed. But the RBA board believes its previous actions continue to have "stimulatory effects, most notably in the housing market," suggesting no new policy initiatives are on the way. The Australian currency, which has over the past month fallen 2.7 per cent against the US dollar to below $0.90, was little moved by the minutes. TD Securities economist Annette Beacher said traders were "unimpressed." "Some in the markets expect words to be followed with deeds," she wrote to clients. We remain with the view that the RBA is finished for this cycle, and that a lower [Australian dollar] will come about via a mix of jawboning and forthcoming US tapering. Additional reporting by Dave Shellock in London