Polemic between Erdoğan, Babacan on 'giving a loan to IMF'

Photos: AA

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As the Turkish lira continues to fall against the US dollar, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blames "foreign attacks" against the country's currency.

On the other hand, Ali Babacan, the AKP's former economy head who founded the Democracy and Progress (DEVA) Party in March following his resignation from the ruling party, has been critical of the government's economic policies.

On Saturday (August 8) the DEVA released a list of recommendations to solve current problems. The party advised the government to end "unsuccessful interventions" on foreign exchange rates through the Central Bank and state-run banks and said that the state-run banks should stop "giving cheap loans without risk and benefit analysis."

Babacan's party also called on the government to be transparent and leave populist policies while making the country's statistical authority reliable and transparent.

Erdoğan responded to Babacan yesterday (August 10) without mentioning his name during a press conference after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, the capital.

"We don't have any debt to the IMF. The IMF had asked us for a loan of 5 billion dollars. The person who took care of the economy at the time had come to me and said, 'Mr. President, should we give this loan?' I said, 'Who borrows a loan today receives instructions tomorrow.' Now, he founded a party and is lecturing us on economics," the President remarked.

Erdoğan has long been boasting about ending the country's debt to the IMF and claiming that the fund asked for a loan from Turkey but then chaged its mind.

In response to Erdoğan's remarks, Babacan said on Twitter that "I agree with Mr. President's evaluation. When I handed over the economy administration, Turkey had the power to give a loan to the IMF."

"But today, unfortunately, there is an administration that gives an IBAN and asks for help from the public," he added, referring to the campaign that Erdoğan launched in late March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Babacan also shared a news report by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) titled, "Babacan paid the last installment to the IMF."

"The economy is a problem for all of us. We are not lecturing, we are making recommendations for the country to weather the storm," he further said. (VK)