Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for St. Petersburg on Wednesday to attend the eighth G20 Summit during which he is expected to push for a coordinated plan to avoid disruption in India and other large developing economies by imminent phasing out of fiscal stimulus by US Federal Reserve.
While the dispute between Russia and the US over the conflict in Syria is likely to overshadow the two-day summit starting Thursday in the Russian city, splits between emerging markets and the US over its winding down of stimulus and the slowing growth of India and other four BRICS countries are expected to remain in focus.
Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa — grouped in the informal BRICS bloc seen as an alternative economic powerhouse — all go into the meeting experiencing slowing growth, embattled currencies and huge capital outflows.
The Indian rupee has lost one-fifth of its value against the US dollar this year following major capital outflows triggered mainly due to the moves by the Fed Reserve.
India is also suffering a decade-low growth and GDP rose just 4.4 per cent in the first quarter.