Turkey says it meets IMF’s October goals
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s central bank said yesterday it had met a range of October monetary indicators set with the IMF under its $19-billion emergency support package. The announcement comes ahead of a visit by an IMF delegation that will assess performance under the deal and discuss additional fund support for crisis-battered Turkey in 2002. The bank said in a statement that it had kept October net domestic assets to 17,933 trillion lira, within an IMF-set performance criteria of 21,150 trillion lira for the month. It said a fall in net international reserves of $304 million in the September to October period was also well within a limit of $3.25 billion, calculated as the period’s limit plus a carried over sum following good performance in the previous term. The targets for net domestic assets and net international reserves are both IMF performance criteria, meaning payment of IMF loans is linked to meeting them. The coming IMF delegation can recommend a payment of around $3 billion if they approve Turkey’s economic management. The bank also said it had met target ranges for end-October base money, which stood at 7,141 trillion lira against a ceiling of 7,550 trillion lira. Turkey says the impact of the September 11 attacks on its export and tourism business means it needs new international assistance for its economy in 2002. Turkish officials have put the total shortfall at around $13 billion, although neither the IMF nor the US Treasury have backed that figure.
