DUESSELDORF, Germany, Dec 17 (AFP) - Turkey will fulfil its obligations regarding the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact in 2006, Economy Minister Ali Babacan has told a German newspaper.
As EU leaders were struggling to salvage a crucial summit that offered Turkey membership talks from next year, Babacan said in Friday's edition of Handelsblatt that Turkey would meet the strict economic criteria to join the European family.
Under the budgetary discipline laid out by the Stability and Growth Pact, public deficits should not exceed 3.0 percent of gross domestic product and public debt should be limited to 60 percent of GDP.
"In terms of budget deficit, we will be there by 2006... and by the end of 2007 we expect to have reduced public debt to less than 60 percent of GDP," Babacan told the newspaper.
"It is harder to make a forecast for inflation, but we hope that after 2007 the three percent threshold will be reached. In 2006, we predict it will be at five percent," he said.
"The EU objective for interest rates will be the last we reach, but we will still do it quicker than many people think."
Babacan said the Turkish economy had undergone "a phenomenal transformation" in recent months and promised that reforms of the pensions and health systems were to come.
12/17/2004 12:51 GMT - AFP