Turkey to have executive seat in IMF restrucring

Turkey will serve as deputy executive director of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) 24-member Executive Board in 2012 and will head a bloc of 10 IMF members in 2014, the IMF announced on Wednesday. The announcement comes as part of a 2010 agreement by the organization to give emerging economies a wider share in the group's decision making process. Turkey will replace Belgium in 2014 as the head representative of a bloc of other IMF members including Austria, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Luxembourg, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Turkey, Europe's fastest-growing economy, had its clout within the IMF boosted in 2008 when the bank adjusted the quota of representation for 54 of 188 member nations. The IMF revised Turkey's quota from 1.2 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR, the IMF'S special currency) to SDR 1.45 billion, an adjustment that increased Turkey's voting power from 0.55 percent to 0.61 percent. Turkey's weight at the IMF further increased in 2010 when the IMF shifted over 6 percent of shares from over to under-represented members. The move granted Turkey a SDR 4.6 billion quota, which increased its absolute voting power to 0.98 percent. The move made Turkey the third-most powerful IMF nation in its bloc of predominately Central European states, behind Austria and Belgium. Despite the IMF quota reshuffling, developing nations including Turkey and emerging BRICS heavyweights -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- have nonetheless pressed for additional voting reforms in recent months. The BRICS nations argue that the influence of EU states, which hold 32 percent of all IMF votes while accounting for around 24 percent of the global economy, should be reduced while the BRICS' voting share -- which amounts to 11 percent of IMF votes despite a 21 percent share of the global economy -- should be greatly increased. In hopes of winning another crucial reshuffle of voting shares, developing countries collectively contributed $75 billion to the IMF coffers during last month's G-20 meet in Los Cabos, Mexico. During the meeting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also pledged to expand Turkey's share in the fund, agreeing to bolster the fund with a $5 billion contribution, which is to be paid from the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Turkey. While Turkey's share of IMF votes has remained unchanged since 2010, its voting power secures it a 20th place overall in the fund, up from 36th place in 2008. In addition to its expanded voting powers and the 2014-2016 chair over its bloc, Turkey is also slated to head the bloc again in 2018-2020. Other developing nations are also slowly rising in the IMF rankings, with China becoming the third-largest member country in the IMF and Brazil, China, India and Russia becoming among the 10 largest shareholders.