Confident Economy Minister downplays criticism by IMF
YAYINLAMA
GÜNCELLEME
Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan ignores a recent IMF outlook on Turkey that foresees the country's 2012 growth at 2 percent, only a half of the government's projection. The minister says the IMF will have to revise its forecast, as it did earlier this year. Still, Caglayan's confident statements fail to convince several economists. Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan has turned a blind eye to the International Monetary Fund's pessimistic Turkey review and said the IMF, not Turkey, will have to revise its projection on the country's 2012 growth. "We foresee 4 percent growth in 2012 and have made all our plans accordingly," Caglayan said at a press conference following the Turkey Innovation Conference in Ankara yesterday. "The World Bank and the IMF have already revised their growth forecasts for 2011 and would likely revise their 2012 growth forecasts upward once more," he said, and the government had no plans to revise its growth forecasts downward. "We are in much better shape than 19 European countries. Europeans have begun to see Turkey as an investment hub […] and this is because of Turkey's political and economic stability," he said. According to the IMF forecast released on the evening of Dec. 7, Turkey will grow by 2 percent in 2012 due to weaker capital inflows, reflecting in part concerns about Turkey's large current account deficit.