WASHINGTON/ANKARA - ''Turkey has undergone an amazing recovery since the 2001 crisis. Now that Turkey is on its way to becoming a new tiger economy,'' International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
Michael Deppler, Director of IMF European I Department and IMF Turkey Desk Chief Reza Moghadam conveyed their views regarding Turkey's economy in IMF Survey entitled: ''Turkey: From Crisis to Recovery''.
Deppler said, ''Turkey is shifting to a new view of both its place in the world and how it wants to manage its economy and its politics more generally. As part of this, there is much more coherence to the policy package, the policy perspective, and the direction of the economy. That is probably the most significant change to hope that Turkey's performance in the future is going to be significantly better than it has been in the past.''
Deppler underlined that according to his experiences, almost the whole economic problems in a country stemmed from political problems.
''With the crisis giving way to recovery, there is clearly a shift to paying greater attention to social issues. Unemployment, in particular, has become a greater concern,'' Deppler stressed.
When asked, ''Turkey is awaiting a decision from the EU in December on whether it will be allowed to start accession talks. How important will this be for Turkey's economic future,'' Deppler said, ''We agree with the authorities that, regardless of what happens, the present economic strategy needs to continue.''
''That said, there is no question that joining the EU would be a major boost to Turkey's prospects,'' Deppler noted.
Mentioning Turkey's medium term new economic program, Deppler said, ''the purpose of the new program, as we understand from our discussions with the authorities, is to continue reducing the debt, strengthen the economy, and make fiscal policy compatible with both debt reduction and a vibrant private sector. This means tax and other reforms. Together with continuing efforts to strengthen the banking sector, these are the key features of the future program, which would basically extend the existing arrangement.''
-TURKEY DESK CHIEF MOGHADAM-
IMF Turkey Desk Chief Reza Moghadam in his part said the performance of fiscal policy in Turkey has been impressive compared with that in emerging markets around the world. ''Last year the government ran the highest primary plus on record in that country-just over 6 percent of GNP.''
Moghadam said, ''There are other challenges as well. During the crisis, current spending was increased at the expense of capital spending.''
Moghadam said, ''there has definitely been a structural change. For the first time in Turkey's history, the credibility gap --the gap between market expectations and the inflation target-- has turned negative. This means the central bank has managed to restore credibility in terms of dealing with inflation.''
(AY-ULG) 23.09.2004