ANKARA - Turkey is planning to meet all the legislative steps required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and sign a letter of intent by mid-April in order to secure the release of a multi-billion-dollar credit line agreed last year, Economy Minister Ali Babacan said on Wednesday.
"I expect we will complete all the required work in the first half of April at the latest and we will sign the letter of intent in the same period," Babacan told the NTV news channel.
Turkey and the IMF completed talks in December on a three-year stand-by deal worth 10 billion dollars (7.57 billion euros) aimed at strengthening the recovery of the Turkish economy.
The IMF told Turkey that it had to complete key legislation on financial services, social security and tax administration before the IMF exectuive board can convene to approve the deal.
Nearly three months on, the Ankara government is still trying to complete the required reforms.
On Wednesday, Babacan blamed resistence within state institutions to the required changes as the main reason for the delay.
"There are different opinions among different institutions, but most imporant of all there is a very strong tendency to preserve the status quo," he said.
But he was nonethless upbeat that his government would make headway soon.
"We have been working hard for the past two months with a feeling that we were stuck in a dark tunnel. But now, we can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
The new IMF deal will suceed a 16-billion-dollar three-year deal Turkey signed with the IMF in 2002 to haul the country out of its worst recession since World War II, triggered by atwo severe financial crises.
IMF-demanded structural reforms have since helped the country recover significantly, bringing chronic inflation down to single digits and boosting growth.
03/09/2005 11:17 GMT