IMF asks fiscal adjustments from Turkey, dispute continues
Posted by meb at November 27th, 2008
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects serious fiscal adjustments from Turkey for a possible program and no agreement over content has been reached, Turkish Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Thursday.
“If we can convince the IMF and reach an agreement over the terms and content, we will make a program with the IMF. There is still dispute over content,” Simsek said in his speech delivered at the 60th Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting in Ankara.
Certain progress was made in the ongoing technical talks with the IMF, Simsek also said.
Turkey’s business leaders have been calling for an IMF loan deal to limit the fallout from a global financial crisis which has already forced Ukraine, Hungary, Iceland and Serbia to seek IMF help.
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.
Simsek said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was not against an arrangement with the IMF but he wanted a smooth program that would help solve the liquidity problem without placing extra burden on the real sector.
Erdogan previously said the government had not wanted to sign a new loan accord if the IMF program exerted excessive constraints on budget spending, taxes, economic growth and public investments.
The prime minister then later said an accord with the IMF was close and that he would soon announce the level of funding aid to be provided in the new deal.
source: Hurriyet daily news
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