Turkey signs $400 million loan agreement with World Bank

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s Treasury announced on Sept. 11 that the World Bank has lent a 350.9 million euro ($400 million) loan to the country as part of the Resilience, Inclusion and Growth Development Policy Financing (RIG-DPF) program.      

The loan agreement is signed to support Turkey’s efforts to increase domestic savings, enhance economic participation among vulnerable groups and address structural bottlenecks to ensure sustainable growth, the Treasury stated.      

It added that the total maturity of the loan was 10 years, including a grace period of three-and-a-half years.      
According to the World Bank, the policies, strategies and reform actions supported under the program center on three strategic outcomes.      

“The first pillar aims to increase domestic savings to help address external imbalances and reduce fiscal risks,” the bank said in a press release. 
    
“The second pillar aims to support participation of women, youth, long-term unemployed, and Syrians under temporary protection in the labor market. The third pillar aims to remove structural bottlenecks to sustainable growth,” it stated, adding that this would be achieved by enacting an appropriate legal framework for the protection of industrial property.   
  
The World Bank also said that removing structural bottlenecks would be achieved by improving the allocation of capital, by facilitating access to credit for small and medium enterprises, and by deregulating network industries through the liberalization of the railways sector.