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By Sebastian Tong
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Turkey will pursue structural and fiscal changes whether or not it secures a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including reforms on its revenue collection, the country's finance minister said on Tuesday.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said he could not comment on the progress of Ankara's talks with the Fund as he was no longer heading the negotiations but said Turkey had been in discussions for a three-year standby arrangement when he left the post of economy minister in May. "I cannot give a timeline on negotiations with the IMF. I am not responsible for IMF affairs...With or without the IMF...we have to move forward with our structural reform agenda and on fiscal discipline," Simsek told investors in London via a video-link at a conference organised by Turkey's Isbank.
The centralising of Turkey's tax inspectors into a single authority is believed to be one of the conditions sought by the IMF in return for a new loan.
"This has been a key IMF conditionality and if correct this would support the view that the government has decided to go ahead with an IMF-funded programme," said Yarkin Cebeci, JP Morgan Chief Economist in Turkey.
Turkey's $10 billion IMF accord expired in May 2008 and investors remain on tenterhooks for a new deal that will help Turkey weather the global economic crisis.
Simsek, economy minister until a cabinet reshuffle in May, said government proposals would include controls on spending and the centralisation of revenue administration.
He said he could not elaborate on the proposals until they were presented to parliament in the months ahead.
Simsek said the reforms would not only check the fiscal deterioration that had arisen because of the global and domestic slowdown but also put the economy on a firmer footing for the recovery.
He noted that the deterioration in the global economy had slowed though he said it remained to be seen if the recovery was sustainable at this stage.
"Recovery will come. Even the worst crisis won't last forever," he said, adding that Turkey's banking sector remained relatively healthy while inflation was under control.
"The inflation outlook is still benign. Inflation is likely to remain on the whole under the target and that is one positive element," he said.
June consumer prices rose at a year-on-year rate of 5.73 percent, still well below the country's end-2009 target of 7.5 percent. (Reporting by Sebastian Tong; Editing by Ron Askew)