The International Monetary Fund may prefer longer-term standby deals with countries such as Turkey, Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek said late on Wednesday. The protracted deal talks between the IMF and Ankara were suspended in January, and Simsek said in a second interview with Reuters and Bloomberg in south-east Turkey it would be positive if the global lender showed more flexibility.
The fate of the deal talks is expected to be clear after March 29 local elections. Simsek welcomed an overhaul of the IMF lending policies to make borrowing easier for emerging market countries like Turkey. "It will be positive for us if the IMFs new approach provides some flexibility on some projected measures and initiatives," Simsek said. Turkey has said it would not take the steps the IMF seeks on some fiscal reform areas including an autonomous revenues administration. The IMF on Tuesday overhauled the way it lends to member countries in the face of a worsening economic crisis and created a new line of credit for well-run emerging market economies. The new flexible credit line will give countries that meet a set of conditions access to a pool of money that they can tap immediately or keep as a guarantee in case global conditions worsen.
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