ANKARA - Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan said on Sunday that necessary measures were taken due to the war in the region.
''Our budget is flexible enough to take all necessary measures in extraordinary periods,'' Unakitan said.
The discussions on the 2003 Financial Year Budget started in the parliament the same day.
Addressing the parliament, Unakitan said that ''it is not possible to have a sound economic and financial structure and to implement social policies aiming to increase prosperity of people, before lessening the interest burden. It is not possible to have political independence without having economic independence. Our country, region and the world go through a difficult period, but nobody should be hopeless. There is war in our region, but our country is not in war. The necessary measures have been taken for interests of our nation and state. We follow up the developments. Markets should not fluctuate by the rumors. All institutions including the Central Bank take all measures for healthy operation of the markets.''
Unakitan said that the government took over a debt stock of 149 billion dollars.
Presenting 2003 Year Budget in the parliament, Unakitan said that ''as much as public balance, balance of payments is also important.''
Unakitan said that ensuring a lasting and permanent increase in exports was one of the most important targets of the government, adding that decreasing the inflation to one digit numbers and to make it permanent was another target.
Unakitan said that the budget deficit in the country caused economic crisis in the past, adding that the budget deficit of the public sector should not exceed 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to EU criteria.
''As of February 2003, the internal debt stock is 159.4 quadrillion liras and the foreign debt stock is 57.9 billion dollars. The total debt of the consolidated budget at the end of 2002 has been 148.5 billion dollars. Its proportion to the Gross National Product (GNP) which was 24 percent in 1980 increased to 82.3 percent in 2002,'' he said.
Unakitan said that the government would try to decrease the inflation to one digit number, to decrease public debt stock, and to implement a new economic programme to reach a stable growth performance.
Unakitan said that the government targeted to have 354.6 quadrillion liras of Gross National Product (GNP), 5 percent of growth rate, 24.4 percent of GNP deflator, 17.4 percent of consumer prices index, 20 percent of wholesale prices index, 39.4 billion dollars of export and 55.6 billion dollars of imports at the end of 2003.
The expenses in the 2003 budget are 145.9 quadrillion liras, non-interest expenses is 80.5 quadrillion liras, income is 100.8 quadrillion liras and the budget deficit is 45.2 quadrillion liras.
(ÖS) 23.03.2003