AN ASSESSMENT OF IMF POLICIES: THE CASE OF TURKEY

Özet

This paper takes issue with the IMF’s continued advocacy of liberalization andfîscal and monetary restraint in Turkey, by assessing the impact of the last tıvo stand-by agreements in 1999 and 2000. We investigate the preconditions of the twin crises if 2000 and 2001 and conclııde that the initiation of the 1999 Stand-by Agreement should have been conditional on structııral reforms in the banking sector. Besides, it is argued that the IMF imposed its policy prescriptions ıvithout suffıcient consideration of the market imperfections that prevail in Turkey. On the fıscal side, we defend targeted spending in key areas, particularly where there is complementariness between efficiency, productivity, relative cost and distributive fairness. We defend the view that the disinflationary, groıvth and human development agendas should be carried out simııltaneously.