Turkish Economy Minister Addresses Symposium in New York

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 10:58

State Minister for economy Ali Babacan delivered a speech at a symposium on "International Economic Alliance and Global Investment" on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings and a G-20 summit in Pittsburg scheduled for September 24-25. Babacan briefed the participants about recent economic developments in Turkey, saying that the country had started to show signs of recovery from a global economic recession.

"We have recently introduced a program that sets our goals over a middle-term period. We are expecting Turkey's economy to shrink 6 percent this year but we are estimating a 3.5 percent growth for 2010," Babacan said.

The Turkish minister said his country was the only OECD member which had needed no intervention into the banking sector due to the global crisis as "our banking system remained powerful and resilient to the global shock thanks to a number of measures which we took earlier."

Responding to a question on a possible deal with the International Monetary Fund, Babacan said "the world will not tumble down if we do not agree with the IMF. Turkey's economy is powerful enough to tackle tough times."

AA