Brics nations to discuss US fed reserve's economic manoeuvres

Ahead of the G-20 summit in St Petersburg next week, India is in touch with China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia to take a common stand on the US Federal Reserve’s plan to scale back monetary stimulus, as the prospects of such a move have hit the emerging economies and pulled down currencies of developing nations.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Jacob Zuma in St Petersburg, just before the G-20 summit begins next Thursday.

The Brics (a five-nation bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders will discuss about the prospect of US Federal Reserve tapering its policy of “quantitative easing” and its implications for the emerging economies. Sources in New Delhi told Deccan Herald that India and its partners in the Brics would call upon the US to be sensitive to global implications of its move to unwind monetary stimulus and cautiously decide on the timing and pace of its exit from the bond-buying programme in order to avoid hurting the emerging economies.
Singh and his counterparts in China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa are also likely to explore measures that could possibly be initiated to shield the Brics economies from global turbulence.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said currency volatility will be an important topic of discussion in the G-20 summit in St Petersburg.

“While all countries have the right to frame and change fiscal and monetary policies in keeping with national interests, they should be calibrated in such ways so that they do not hurt other economies,” Ahluwalia, who is New Delhi’s “sherpa” for the G-20 summit, told journalists on Saturday.

Singh on Friday told Parliament that since the US central bank indicated on May 22 that it would taper its “quantitative easing,” a “reversal of capital flows to emerging economies” pulled down not just the rupee, but also the Brazilian real and the South African rand and many other currencies.

The prime minister, who will address the G-20 summit next Friday, is likely to stress that the developed economies should take into account implications and repercussions of their fiscal and monetary policies on the emerging economies.

The American Federal Reserve’s purported plan to scale back stimulus  hit the economies like Brazil, India and South Africa.