ANKARA - A delegation headed by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Turkey Desk Chief Reza Moghadam will come to Turkey on Thursday to start working on the Sixth Review of Stand-by agreement.
IMF Representative to Turkey Odd Per Brekk released a statement on Wednesday and said that the delegation would firstly meet with representatives of business world in Istanbul and then would proceed to Ankara to hold meetings with government officials.
Brekk said that they would focus on 2003 budget practices and 2004 budget preparations and also take up comprehensive structural reforms which Turkish government had noted in letter of intent and targeted to complete with regard to the sixth review.
Those reforms are listed as, ''completing direct tax regulation by rearranging the incentives, adopting new budget laws (Public Financial Management and Supervision Law), decreasing the number of redundant workers in state economic enterprises according to targets, adopting necessary laws to strengthen the activity of Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Agency (BDDK), approving the privatization plan of Turk Telekom and determining a strategy to decrease over taxation that increases debt expenses of household and to decrease other problems.''
Recalling that 2.5 billion U.S. dollars remained from the loan worth of 17.5 billion dollars that IMF had given to Turkey within the scope of stand-by covering 2002-2004 period, Brekk said that economic program was going well and Turkish economy was on the true path.
Noting that interest rates decreased considerably, Turkish Lira restored its stability and 5 percent of growth determined for 2003 in accordance with the program could be provided, Brekk said that 20 percent target for this year could be reachable.
Brekk said that with the continuing efforts of Turkish officials, the Sixth Review could be approved by IMF Executive Directors Board in the end of October or in the beginning of November and he added that this could pave the way of releasing a new loan tranche worth of 500 million dollars.
(GC-AÖ) 24.09.2003