Chancellor Alistair Darling will play host to his counterparts from around the world at a time when most of them will be concerned about the impact of the global recession on jobs in the developed world. But those protesting at the gates will be far more worried about the fate of poorer nations and the impact of climate change.

This is a different type of G20 event to that which led to a protester dying on the streets of London earlier this year. With finance ministers rather than heads of state involved, it will be more business-like, but it is still a major focus of the climate change and global justice debate.

The main event will be well outside St Andrews but protesters will gather in the ancient university town to make their case.

Leaders pledged at their last summit to even out the glaring imbalances that are weighing on the world economy. Their finance officials now face the daunting task of finding common ground on just how to do that.

Finance ministers and central bankers plan to hammer out a peer-review process aimed at closing damaging trade, consumption and budget gaps.

Officials are also likely to repeat their pledge to keep economic stimulus measures in place until global economic recovery is assured, even as growth in key markets gives a hopeful backdrop to the meeting. Six weeks after world leaders vowed to rebalance the global economy, finance officials will struggle with the realpolitik behind that rhetoric.

Longstanding disagreements over key issues – particularly China’s refusal to be rushed into appreciating its currency – mean that, for now, countries are unlikely to decide on specific steps to narrow yawning trade and savings gaps between them.

Instead, finance ministers and central bankers will try to flesh out long-term ways of putting peer-pressure in place for the future.

“At St Andrews they can elaborate their leaders’ framework, identify principles and a process, and assess how fast and where China is prepared to move first, and what it wants in return,” said John Kirton, a professor who studies the G20 at the University of Toronto.

At their September summit in Pittsburgh, G20 leaders announced that by November they would launch “a co-operative process of mutual assessment” of national economic policies and their impact on global growth.

This could eventually mean a sea-change in policymaking, as countries co-ordinate their policies to avoid the economic stresses which contributed to the global financial crisis.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has stressed the need for continued stimulus, reflecting the fact that the UK remains officially in recession, while the United States, represented by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is already recording renewed growth along with Germany and Japan.

Some countries who think they are out of the woods are keen to begin unwinding the recent massive government spending, low interest rates and expansion of the money supply that are supporting the world economy.