ANKARA - State Minister Ali Babacan said on Monday that they had begun to yield positive results of the economic program.
Holding a press conference about meetings held with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and recent economic developments, Babacan said, ''we have begun recording significant developments in macroeconomic and financial figures after finalization of the fourth review in April, Iraq war's coming to and end in a short period of time and continuation of the economic program with a determination. Interest rates, which decreased up to 70 percent during the Iraq crisis in March, have decreased to 50 percent last week.''
''Total deposits in Turkish lira (TL), which were 58.8 quadrillion TL in February, increased to 62.3 quadrillion TL in May. Recent public pools revealed that expectations about growth and inflation have recovered considerably,'' he said.
Babacan told reporters, ''meetings with the IMF, which started on May 20, were completed last weekend. Significant progress was recorded in draft letter of intent about the fifth review. The letter is about to completed in the next ten days. The letter will be submitted to the IMF in mid-June.''
''During the meetings with the IMF, macroeconomic targets, finance and monetary policies and developments in financial sector reform and other structural reforms were assessed. During the meetings, it was revealed that Turkey can reach its growth target of 5 percent and inflation target of 20 percent at the end of the year,'' he added.
(UK-BRC) 02.06.2003