IMF report indicates weakness of lending channels

A published in October by IMF specialists Burcu Aydın and Deniz İgan titled "Bank Lending in Turkey: Effects of Monetary and Fiscal Policies" has analyzed the effect of monetary and fiscal policies on credit growth between the years 2002-2008. The report also addresses the fact that Turkey has successfully implemented a disinflation program, which reduced the high levels of inflation after 2001.

According to the report, lending decreased sharply in a period of constrained liquidity among banks in Turkey. "Any narrowing in monetary or fiscal policy will lead to a tight liquidity need and a decrease in the short-term loans of individual-banking departments. Separately, the effect of monetary and fiscal policies on loans based on foreign currencies is limited," noted the report. The IMF report reveals that the lending channels of Turkish banks are not robust and that the effect of public institutions on these loans is limited. Moreover, the report also indicates that the crowding-out effect (public sector withdrawing funds invested in the economy in order to finance the gap between expenditures and accounts, which leads to a decrease in the volume of loans in the private sector) is not a concern in banks that concentrate on retail banking.