Turkey-IMF to sign stand-by deal, amount yet to be determined
Posted by meb at November 25th, 2008
A deal between Ankara and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be a stand-by agreement, but the amount of the deal has not yet been determined, Vatan newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing a government source.
Turkey is still talking with the IMF on a new loan accord and no agreement has been reached on the volume of the credit, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
The Vatan report said the government would opt for a regular deal as opposed to a precautionary stand-by deal. The government has repeatedly said it prefers a precautionary deal that does not issue funds automatically but allows the government to draw money on merit.
Ankara’s IMF deal will put growth between three and four percent and will require a limited government guarantee on savings deposits, the report said, something the government has already promised.
Turkey’s last $10 billion regular stand-by loan accord, the latest in a series of loan programs which helped it emerge from a 2001 financial crisis, expired in May.
Economists say Turkey’s $74 billion currency reserves are no longer a large enough buffer, given the more than $100 billion of external debt falling due in the next 12 months and a current account deficit estimated at around $35 billion for 2009.
Vatan added that the budget deficit would be 1 percent and the primary surplus ratios would be kept at 4 percent under the new IMF deal.
source: Hurriyet daily news
Related posts: