The Fed is one of those places where cooler heads prevail and we might all be in for a surprise if the statement simply notes that the weekend downgrade provided one of those external shocksithas previously warned against and that it would now monitor the impact on consumer and business confidence going forward.
It seems that Russia has become less vulnerable to financial and currency shocks and that it is still highly exposed in the event of an adverse oil price shock, writes Tatiana Orlova, a Russian strategist at Nomura in London.