The last time a December oil rout ravaged the ruble, Russia responded with an emergency rate increase. This year could be different. Economists predict the Bank of Russia will extend a pause in its rate cycle at its rate meeting on Friday The ruble plummeted to its weakest against the dollar since August following last week’s decision by OPEC that effectively abandoned output limits and sent oil to its lowest since 2009. The world’s largest energy exporter adjusted to the worst commodities slump in a generation with spending cutbacks and by eventually allowing the ruble to weaken. The central bank burned through a fifth of its reserves to prop up the currency in 2014 and raised rates by 7.5 percentage points a year ago to stem the slide. Governor Elvira Nabiullina last month left open the possibility of holding borrowing costs on pause until March after five rate cuts […]