G7 happy with Turkey’s IMF pledge

"We welcome the signature of the memorandum of understanding as well as the Turkish government’s renewed and strengthened commitments to advance financial stability and economic reforms, which are key to market confidence," the G7 said in a statment published late on Monday in Paris.

"The determined and convergent application of these policies will form the basis of further success in reducing inflation and the cost of debt, and achieving sustainable economic growth," said the G7 — which groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The statement comes after Turkey last week signed a memorandum of understanding on its future economic policy, ending seven months of talks over an overdue 1.6-billion-dollar (1.51-billion-euro) loan instalment for Turkey in the framework of its IMF programme.

The IMF’s executive board is next due to meet on April 18 to approve a new instalment of 700 million dollars under the programme’s modified timetable, with seven more installments of 500 million dollars each due to be released before December 2004.

The IMF’s agreement with Turkey, concluded in February last year, allocated a total of 16 billion dollars in funding to support Ankara’s attempts to pull the country out of recession in the wake of two serious financial crises.