Agreed With IMF: No New Measures

The mission will return to U.S. next week. Officials, who attended the meetings, said that there was no problem between the IMF mission and economy administration. Both parties reportedly reached an understanding on the macro balances and budget items of 2004. No need for “additional measures” arose as a result of the talks. The officials said that the 6th Review was already concluded.

The talks of the mission will continue this week on some points, which are not the kind of issues that can affect the review talks in general. Therefore, the 6th Review will most probably pass from the Executive Board of IMF at the specified time.

The officials said that the most important reasons underlying the ease of the review talks were the success in fighting inflation and decline in the value of dollar vis-à-vis Turkish Lira. A further reason facilitating the talks was the “understanding attitude of IMF.” The mission and its head, Reza Mogadham, are “very positive,” and did not much question some problematic issues such as idle staff.