PM Manmohan Singh arrives in Russia for G20 Summit

ST PETERSBURG: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here today to attend the eighth G20 Summit during which he is expected to push for a coordinated plan to avoid disruption in India and other developing economies by imminent phasing out of fiscal stimulus by the US.

While the dispute between Russia and the US over the conflict in Syria is likely to overshadow the two-day summit starting tomorrow in the Russian city, splits between emerging markets and the US over Federal Reserve's 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.

In a statement before leaving for the Summit, Singh called for an "orderly exit" from unconventional monetary policies being pursued by the developed world for the last few years to avoid damaging growth prospects of the developing world.

Singh, who has attended all the previous G20 summits since the first meet in Washington in 2008, is due to return home on Saturday evening.