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Çağlayan calls IMF issue a sign of Turkey’s economic strength
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, the minister underlined that the dead end in the negotiations with the IMF over a new stand-by deal had not had an impact on the economy’s stable recovery, which he believed was a consequence of reforms and recent achievements. “As such, we do not need the IMF now or in the future,” Çağlayan claimed. Regrettably, the IMF held Turkey to a double standard, he added.
“In other words, the measures our government took in the economy over the last seven-and-a-half years were tested and approved by the markets,” he asserted.
When asked if failing to sign a deal would adversely affect Turkey’s domestic fiscal discipline, he asserted that it would not.
He recalled that in the past, Turkish officials went to the US to knock on the IMF’s doors to beg for loans and that international lenders opened their loan channels only after Turkey signed a deal with the IMF.
Thanks to fiscal and budgetary discipline and structural economic reforms, Turkey eased past the fiercest global crisis and managed to secure credit rating upgrades from four international rating agencies without the IMF’s assistance.
The minister also accused the IMF of hypocrisy in its relations with Turkey as it recommends that all nations increase domestic consumption, spend money and distribute financial aid to citizens while suggesting that Turkey do the contrary. “It turned to us and said, ‘Except you.’ My friend, you advise everyone to do this, so why don’t you let me do the same thing, too? How are my budget and debt balance doing? I don’t even have a single bank that went under due to the global crisis,” he said.
Çağlayan also spoke about the government’s democratic initiative. Moves to consolidate democracy and expand ethnic and minority rights in Turkey will seriously contribute to domestic peace and increase the sense of solidarity among the people, he argued.
He said he, as a former idealist of Turkish nationalism, had full faith in the democratic initiative. “We have brought up topics that no one even dared discuss or debate openly. We revealed all dirty affairs hidden under the carpet,” Çağlayan stressed.
Touching on tense relations between Turkey and the United States after a committee from the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution on the incidents of 1915 earlier this month, the minister said he had postponed a trip to the US in reaction to the decision. “We will closely monitor the developments in Washington, D.C. We will formulate a decision after April 24,” Çağlayan said. On April 24, as is usual for US presidents, Barack Obama will deliver a speech to mark the 1915 incidents.
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