Turkey to meet IMF after disagreement overcome- econmin

Simsek said that Turkey would invite the IMF immediately after the disputed matters were solved. "However, we can start direct talks a bit later if they maintain their approach," he told an AA correspondent. Â

Simsek said that if Turkey invited the IMF delegation in February, they could hold a joint press conference, send the letter of intent to the Fund and technically complete talks in February.

The minister said this could happen only if the two sides agreed.

Simsek underlined the importance of an IMF program for reducing Turkish private sector's unease over the foreign finance need, and said that Turkey was planning to sign a cautionary stand-by deal with the Fund if there had not been a global economic crisis.

The state minister said that an IMF program would not only provide foreign finance but also create a peg for a medium-term program.

Simsek said that the IMF was bringing up some measures during its talks with Turkey, which aimed at reducing public borrowing and expenditures and raising income.

"However, Turkey does not have any public borrowing problem, but it has financial discipline and therefore the program should take into consideration the current global conditions and Turkey's changing structure," he said.

Simsek said that Turkey could get money from international markets under better circumstances compared to many developing countries thanks to the confidence in Turkish economy.

"We planned international bond issue worth $4 billion this year, and we have achieved one-fourth of this issue in the first month of this year despite the stagnation in foreign finance," he said.

Simsek said that Turkey could easily meet its foreign finance need of between $15 billion and $30 billion in 2009 because it had sufficient foreign exchange reserves.

"Moreover, we have not even calculated privatization revenues in 2009 when we were preparing the Treasury finance program," he said.

Simsek also said that Turkey could have one-digit inflation figure in the first half of 2009 if the declining tendency continued.

The Turkish minister said that he had the opportunity to meet many foreign investors during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, and foreign investors found Turkey attractive despite the global crisis.

Simsek forecast that there would be direct foreign capital inflow to Turkey in 2009, particularly in energy, medicine and telecommunication.

The Turkish minister also expressed belief that international rating organizations might revise Turkey's rating as "investable" in the medium term.