For some time economists and investors have been speculating when and if the Federal Open Market Committee will raise interest rates. Well the waiting is nearly (until the October 28th anyway) over as the FOMC convenes on Wednesday and Thursday to debate whether or not now is the time to begin the process of returning US interest rate to whatever equates to “normal”. If they do raise rates, it will be the first time for a decade.

One argument is that the longer the FOMC waits to deliver the first increase the harsher the consequences will be. Alternatively, those who support the leave-it-be view maintain that an increase cannot be justified by the inflation rate and fear that moving too early will knock the economy into reverse.

The imminent FOMC rate decision was the main topic of speculation on Friday, not least because there was little else about which to speculate. It meant Sterling, the US Dollar and the Canadian Dollar got the rough end of the stick.

The US Dollar suffered by the provisional University of Michigan index of US consumer sentiment, which came out at 85.7, down by six points on the month and the lowest reading in more than a year.

Today the figures that matter relate to industrial production. China set the ball rolling on Sunday with an annual increase of 6.1%, which might look alright at first glance but represents less than half the growth seen four years ago. Alongside the industrial output number showed Chinese retail sales increased by an annual 10.8%. Eurozone industrial production follows later this morning.