ANKARA - State Minister Ali Babacan for Economy said on Saturday, ''we signed the letter of intent about the sixth review, and sent it to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) overnight.''
Responding questions of the A.A correspondent about recent economic developments, Babacan said that the letter of intent included Turkey's economic policies and targets for the future.
''Following some certain legal arrangements, IMF Board is expected to convene in the second half of November and to decide to finalize the Sixth Review process. Later, another tranche of nearly 500 million U.S. dollars will be released,'' he said.
Underlining that Turkey had begun yielding concrete and positive results of the ongoing economic program, Babacan said, ''inflation rate has been continuing to decrease. Economic indications such as industrial production, capacity utilization rate and exports are the signs that we will easily realize our growth rate target of 5 percent at the end of the year.''
''Meanwhile, borrowing interest rates of the Treasury has been decreasing both nominally and really. The domestic borrowing interest rate, which was 66 percent in October of 2002, decreased to 30 percent in the same period this year. We have been maintaining our determination about financial discipline. We will seize our target of non-interest surplus which was earlier announced as 6.5 percent of the gross national product (GNP),'' he stressed.
Stating that rate of public debt stock to GNP also decreased and it continued to decrease, Babacan said that rate of public debt stock to GNP reduced to 92 percent in the end of 2001 and they estimated that it would be around 70 percent in the end of this year.
Babacan said that they saw that confidence in Turkish economy increased rapidly in the country and abroad as a result of those positive developments and stated that all international rating organizations upgraded Turkey's credit rating or outlook.
He noted that he saw that people showed great interest to Turkey and Turkish economy in all meetings which they attended in foreign countries and stated that international investors, finance organizations, academicians and journalists said that they were monitoring Turkey and considered developments in Turkey very positive.
Stating that they would not allow developments which could spoil positive atmosphere in Turkey to take place, Babacan said, ''as you know, we have determined the inflation target for 2004 as 12 percent. Our growth target is 5 percent, and primary surplus target is 6.5 percent. Those figures are indicators of our determination.''
Babacan said that they would put into practice economic program with determination and stated that they would reach those targets.
Noting that structural reforms were fulfilled one by one, he said, ''our arrangements on issues including restructuring public sector, strengthening banking sector and increasing role of private sector in economy are being put into practice. We have submitted to the parliament legal arrangements which will make more active the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Agency (BRSA) with Public Management and Control Law.''
Babacan noted that they completed studies on the 2nd package of Direct Tax Reform.
He said that they brought studies regarding privatization of Turk Telekom to the final level.
Stating that all those positive developments reflected to domestic markets and people, Babacan said that activity increased in markets and there was an increase in employment.
Babacan said that Turkey was going through very positive developments and stated that they were solving problems of years one by one. He added that Turkey would have brighter days soon.
(EÖ-UK) 01.11.2003