Babacan assures markets on fiscal discipline

Turkey will maintain its current policy of fiscal discipline, Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Ali Babacan said yesterday. Turkey will retain its current policy on fiscal discipline for three more years, as Turkey's debt stock continues to decline, he said in a televised interview. "The medium-term economic program we recently made public is a continuation of last year's practices," Babacan added. Babacan said the ratio of public debt stock to national income would drop to 42 percent by year's-end, adding that Turkey is economically robust. But there are troubling external indications of a possible return to global recession, he said. In the recent global economic climate, two of the most important risk factors in developing countries were public debt and unemployment, he said, adding that Turkey has made exceptional achievements with the employment opportunities it created during the crisis.