Babacan: Stand-by talks continue with IMF

''Stand-by talks continue with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There is no final date,'' Turkish State Minister Ali Babacan said on Tuesday. Replying to questions, Babacan said stand-by talks continued with the IMF, stating that, ''there is no final date. We earlier stated that the talks would be completed at the beginning of 2005. With the incentive law, number of topics we should complete increased to four.We will start stand-by the moment we complete them.''Babacan said their economic program was open and transparent, noting that, ''nobody should expect any deviation from our policies and targets.''Emphasizing that there were efforts aiming at disrupting confidence atmosphere, Babacan said, ''there is confidence under the basis of our economy policies. We have fulfilled what we have promised.''Babacan said Turkish economy didn't anymore show a fragile structure, noting that inflation entered into a tendency to drop. He also said interest rates regressed in a way to provide a sustainable development.Babacan also said their expectations for tourism were very positive for this year.State Minister Babacan said the amount of loan used from the IMF in 2003-2004 period was 2.94 billion US dollars, stating that 8.4 billion US dollars debt payment was made in the same period.    Â