ISTANBUL - Turkey`s Finace Minister Kemal Unakitan said everybody agreed that Turkey would get it`s share from the global financial crisis because it (crisis) would impede the flow of loans and lower the amount of credits provided by banks.
Adressing a group of reporters in Istanbul Sunday, Unakitan said there would be a credit squueze in Turkey and underlined the importance of facilitating the flow of credit.
He said small and medium size enterprizes(SME) would be mostly effected by such a credit squeeze noting that they created a separate funding for loans to SMEs in the 2009 budget. He said they would make it easier for SMEs to access loans and provide them with low interest rates.
Unakitan said, in order to prevent unemployment, it was important to reduce the cost of new employees for business owners. He said they lowered the social security and health insurance premiums on employment for business owners and added that the government also agreed to pay the first year premiums of new employees who are between the ages of 19 and 29.
Unkakitan warned that a recession and stagnation in European countries could negatively effect Turkey`s exports and said they would provide support to exports to new markets and destinations.
Unakitan pointed out that Turkey always needed foreign capital and said maintaining a high level of credibility was a priority. He said it was important that primary surplus and budget deficit would be on low levels for public financing.
Unakitan underlined that according to Maastricht criteria the ratio of a country`s budget deficit to its GNP ought to not exceed 3 percent and said Turkey complied with this rule.
"We will stick to the budget discipline, while preparing the 2009 budget," said Unakitan.
Unakitan said 2009 budget would amount to 262 billion USD and noted that they expected Turkey`s GNP to be 1.1 trillion USD, its growth rate 4 percent and its CPI 7.5 percent.
He added that Turkey`s imports would amount to 232 billion USD and its exports to 149 billion USD according to the government`s projections in 2009 budget.
Unakitan said Turkey had good relations with IMF noting that the 2009 budget was in line with their perspective.
"If making an agreement with IMF is beneficial for Turkey, than we will make it," said Unakitan.
He said IMF served like an anchor for countries with the criteria it brought and added that Turkey created its own anchors for the past couple of years.
Commenting on recent calls for the government to increase government insurance to bank deposits Unakitan said, "there is no need for such a measure right now. Current insurance for deposits up to 50,000YTL, covers 95 percent of the depositors in Turkey."
(OZG-AÖ)
(ECO)