Emerging-market equity returns were even more volatile and diverse, as significant gains in the spring and summer reversed into a downturn beginning in September. More recently the selloff had become widespread and acute, but there has been a bounce-back following the Federal Reserve meeting on December 17, which increased confidence that US interest rate increases were not coming soon. Economic growth in the emerging-market economies has slowed somewhat from 5.2% last year to a projected still-healthy 4.6% this year. Investors apparently feared a greater slowdown. Early in the year the emerging markets were hit by concerns of a slowdown in China that might become severe, by global economic growth that was also slowing, and by the development of a secular bear market in commodities. More recently, while the slowdown in China appears to be modest and economic prospects in the advanced economies are looking brighter, even in Europe, a plunge in emerging-market currencies (other than the Chinese yuan) relative to the US dollar has raised concerns for countries with sizable foreign currency (largely US dollar) debt, much of which has been issued by emerging-market nonfinancial companies. This is the case for Russia, for example, where the ruble has plunged. The decline in the oil price is having mixed effects, crushing equity markets of economies dependent on oil exports such as the UAE and Russia while providing a welcome tailwind to oil importers such as India, Thailand, and the Philippines.