Middle East Aggregator

The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a 3.65-billion-dollar loan to Turkey, the final segment of a three-year stand-by credit worth nearly 10 billion dollars.

"The Turkish economy has continued to perform reasonably well despite a challenging external environment, with economic activity showing resilience and foreign direct investment inflows remaining buoyant," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

The IMF executive board completed Friday its seventh and final review of the economic reforms it had demanded the Turkish government undertake in exchange for the credit, the multilateral institution said.

The board particularly praised Turkey's social security and tax reforms.

Turkey and the IMF signed the stand-by arrangement on May 11, 2005. It replaced a three-year IMF agreement in 2001 that enabled Ankara to overcome a severe financial crisis.

The current agreement expires Saturday and the Turkish government is expected to decide whether it wants to strike a new agreement with the IMF, a sensitive question amid declining demand for the institution's loans. (AFP)

Labels: IMF, Turkey

Consensus is rare in Turkey, but no one seems to like the IMF.

With the country due to end its loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund on Saturday, a view is building that after 19 standby agreements since 1961, it is time Turkey cut the ties and stood on its own economic feet.

"The IMF forced Turkey to sell its profit-making banks. Soon there will be nothing to sell. What will we leave to our children?" said Mustafa Koc, 47, standing in front of dozens of Turkish flags which he sells in Ankara's central Kizilay area.

Students, trade unionists, civil servants and even businessmen are asserting that the fund's programmes have never been a real help, and with inflation in single digits and growth averaging 6.8 percent in the last five years, they say Turkey no longer needs the IMF's rigors and disciplines.

"Turkey must go its separate way with the IMF and must certainly say 'no' to a new IMF deal," Ankara Chamber of Commerce Chairman Sinan Aygun told Reuters.

"Turkey needs to implement a programme which suits its conditions and serves its own interests. There are no countries which became rich implementing the IMF's economic programmes. They are all in poverty." (Reuters)

Labels: IMF, Turkey

The poor have been given a little more say in the International Monetary Fund (IMF)in the biggest change in voting rights since the organization was founded more than 60 years ago.
The reform on Monday reduces the power of the IMF's rich member countries to 57.93% of voting rights from 60.57%. Members had until April 28 to approve the proposal to give developing countries more heft in the institution. Inter Press Service was told that the proposal has been approved with 92.93% of the vote, comfortably more than the minimum of 85% needed for the new division of voting rights to enter into force.
Important IMF members such as Russia and Saudi Arabia voted against the proposal because it meant that their voting weight is reduced.
Developing countries have been complaining for many years that they do not have enough power within the IMF. Nor do many of them believe that the fund is really for their good. For that reason, particularly since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, some developing countries have amassed enormous financial reserves to make sure that they will not need the IMF any more.
IMF assistance to many countries in need in the past has been given with conditions that have brought long-term damage for short-term relief. The most controversial of these were the Structural Adjustment Programs that the IMF demanded in return for rescue loans. (Asia Times)

Labels: IMF, Russia, Saudi Arabia

The International Monetary Fund on Friday praised the Palestinian
government for what it calls 'bold reforms' and said it was making strides toward fiscal sustainability.

The agency's report Friday praises President Mahmoud Abbas' government for freezing public sector hiring and wage increases and reducing utility subsidies. But it says the deficit remains high.

The Abbas government has promised international donors to try to reduce
spending, and especially the government payroll.

The IMF issues regular progress reports on the government's performance. The reports are part of a Palestinian development plan underwritten by $7.7 billion (4.9 billion) in international aid.

The IMF report also calls on Israel to ease movement restrictions to help the Palestinian economy recover. (Haaretz)

Labels: IMF, Israel, Palestine

The International Monetary Fund on Friday praised the Palestinian
government for what it calls 'bold reforms' and said it was making strides toward fiscal sustainability.

The agency's report Friday praises President Mahmoud Abbas' government for freezing public sector hiring and wage increases and reducing utility
s
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ubsidies. But it says the deficit remains high.

The Abbas government has promised international donors to try to reduce
spending, and especially the government payroll.

The IMF issues regular progress reports on the government's performance. The reports are part of a Palestinian development plan underwritten by $7.7 billion (4.9 billion) in international aid.

The IMF report also calls on Israel to ease movement restrictions to help the Palestinian economy recover. (Haaretz)

Labels: IMF, Israel, Palestine

The World Bank has come up with what it calls a "new plan" for easing the crisis confronting tens of millions of people around the world.

The escalating price of staple crops like rice and wheat has put them at risk of starvation as well as triggering further social unrest.

With help from its twin institution, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank has called for richer nations to contribute $500 million to ease the burden.

The semi-annual sessions of the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC usually deal with abstract financial issues.

But the sharp rise in food prices, aggravated by new export curbs by leading rice producers, has put these economic policymakers on high alert.

Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, told the gathering: "Based on a very rough analysis, we estimate that doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty."

He said the food crisis could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: IMF, World Bank

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for a strong front to put the reeling world economy back on track.

"The global crisis has to be addressed with a global view and by strengthening the role of multilateral institutions," Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, chair of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee said on Saturday.

The IMF also added that "policymakers should continue to respond to the challenge of dealing with the financial crisis and supporting activity, while making sure that inflation is kept under control."

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director, said that the meeting showed the spirit of multilateral effort that had been revived.

"There is a kind of revival of the multilateral spirit, the idea that we are facing global problems and that to those global problems, there must be global answers," he said. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: IMF