South Africa has called for more collective international action to tackle the turmoil afflicting emerging market currencies as leaders of the world’s leading economies prepare to gather at the G20 summit this week, writes Andrew England in Johannesburg.

President Jacob Zuma’s office yesterday said the slide in currencies triggered by the potential tapering of the US Federal Reserve’s $85bn-a-month asset purchase programme was a reminder of “the risks” and “negative effects that policies and shocks in major economies can have on other countries”.

“As the current volatility of emerging market currencies shows, decisions taken by countries based solely on their own national interest can have serious implications for other nations,” the office said. “The solution to all these challenges – turbulence in financial markets, the fragile and uneven economic recovery – lies in better global co-ordination of efforts.” The G20 summit will open tomorrow in St Petersburg in Russia, against a backdrop of emerging market turbulence that has caused India, Brazil and Indonesia to commit billions of dollars in an attempt to stem the dramatic slides in their plunging currencies.