WASHINGTON - ''The 9th and 10th reviews (regarding the loan to be granted to Turkey) by International Monetary Fund (IMF) were cancelled. The loan worth of nearly 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, which belongs to these periods, will be transferred to new Stand-By deal to be concluded with the IMF,'' said State Minister Ali Babacan.
Babacan who is currently in Washington D.C. for fall session of IMF and World Bank, held a news conference on Monday.
Upon a question, Babacan said, ''Turkey will present its 3-year economic program to the European Union (EU) before December 1st. Turkey aims to reach a Stand-By deal with IMF before the decision about Turkey is announced during the EU Summit to be held on December 17th.''
''Loans which will be granted under the new deal with IMF will be less than Turkey's debts. Turkey will pay 20 billion U.S. dollars of debt to IMF within next 2.5 years. This payment will be extended to a longer period with the new stand-by deal,'' added Babacan.
Babacan said, ''Turkey has also the right to postpone its 3.6 billion U.S. dollars of debt to IMF from 2006 to 2007.''
Babacan also replied questions about U.S. loan worth of 8.5 billion U.S. dollars which the United States reserved for Turkey to meet the damages of Iraq war.
He said, ''there is no time restriction for this loan. However, the issue can be discussed at U.S. Congress after a while. Officials of U.S. Department of Treasury told us that 'the issue is suspended; it does not figure on our agenda at the moment'. We do not need this loan either. We did not taken this loan into account while preparing 3-year economic program of Turkey.''
Babacan also said he met Alan Larson, U.S. Undersecretary for Economic, Business & Agricultural Affairs, and John Taylor, U.S. Undersecretary for Treasury, during his contacts in Washington D.C.
(GC-ULG) 04.10.2004