UPDATE 1-Turkey to decide on IMF soon-PM Erdogan
(Adds details, background)
ISTANBUL, June 18 (Reuters) - Turkey will decide shortly what kind of follow-up deal it will adopt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as technical studies are continuing, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
A three-year $10 billion deal between the IMF and Turkey ran out on May 10 and Turkey has given no indication of what it wants to do next.
Turkey could choose either a precautionary stand-by deal with access to funding or a less stringent post-programme monitoring deal with no access to IMF loans.
Economists favour another stand-by agreement as it would ensure Turkey sticks to strict fiscal discipline, but senior members of the ruling AK Party told Reuters recently the government was not in favour of this.
"We will make our decision clear I think in a short period of time," Erdogan told a news conference.
The AK Party members, who declined to be named, said Erdogan, who is facing a political crisis with a court case aimed at shutting his party down, was keen to show his government's economic achievements since coming to power and another standby agreement would undermine this show of success.
Turkey still needs some form of agreement with the IMF as the country still owes the fund some $6 billion.
Turkey has borrowed $45.8 billion from the IMF since a 2001 financial crisis and was the fund's last major borrower from a string of crises in emerging economies such as Brazil and Argentina. Continued...
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