Turkey’s Economy Minister Kemal Dervis said Sunday that he presumed a solution could be reached Monday with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to overcome a credit impasse, according to the Turkish Daily News.
"I presume we will have found the solution by Monday, but I can't say that's for sure," Dervis told reporters before leaving Washington on Sunday, after several days of talks with IMF officials there.
The IMF said last week that it was delaying a $1.56 billion loan for Turkey, attached to the 8th review of the country's multibillion-dollar standby arrangement.
The fund is dissatisfied with the political appointees to the board of the state telephone company, Turk Telekom, and by perceived insufficient progress in the area of banks, said the paper.
Dervis said work was ongoing, "But I'm confident, hopeful, that we will achieve a result."
The IMF wants revisions to the Turk Telekom board in order to make sure the company is managed professionally until privatization. But government officials, including Dervis himself, have voiced confidence in the board members, according to the paper.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit called the IMF delays a very large injustice, helping to send the country’s currency to record lows and leaving stocks down by nine percent.
“To me, delaying the aid is a very big injustice,” Ecevit told reporters.
The delay in the law's passage may further complicate relations with fund IMF inspector Juha Kahkonen, who has said the law is crucial to Turkey’s program with the fund – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
