ANKARA
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu praised on Wednesday Turkey's rising economic development, which was achieved without needing to resort to foreign financial assistance as it did in the past.
"Now we have a Turkey that can develop without receiving external loans," he told a plenary session at the Turkish Parliament, where he made his remarks during parliamentary discussions over Turkey's 2015 budget.
Turkey liquidated its 52-year debt to the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, when the Turkish Undersecretariat of Treasury paid the last installment on May 14, 2013.
With 188 members, the IMF loans money to countries with payment imbalances as well as monitoring the global economy and promoting economic co-operation, trade, employment and exchange rate stability.
Turkey even took a seat at the executive board of the International Monetary Fund in mid-July for the first time, as Ibrahim Canakci -- undersecretary at the Turkish Treasury -- was appointed as executive director to the Fund for the 2014-2016 term.
Ankara offered to give a loan of $5 billion to contribute to efforts to increase IMF funds as agreed at the G20 Los Cabos Leaders' Summit in Mexico back in June 2012.
Speaking on Turkey's macro-economic figures, Davutoglu stressed that the Turkish economy has grown more than three times over under Justice and Development Party rule since 2002.
The economy scaled up from $230 billion to $822 billion, he added.
He also maintained that foreign exchange reserves climbed from $28 billion to $133 billion within the same 12-year period.
The premier said the 2002 export figure of $36 billion grew four-fold to $151.8 billion in 2013.
"When we took over the government, the poverty threshold in terms of the daily expenditure per capita was $4.20. 30 percent of Turkish population used to live under that threshold. Now only 2.7 percent live under the threshold," he added.
He described Turkey as a country that now has one of the strongest middle classes in the world.
Turkish premier also stressed that the ratio of public debt to national income fell from 74 percent to 33 percent in the same period, which he said is a figure better than all 25 EU member countries and well above EU standards.
He added that direct investments rose from $1.1 billion to $12.9 billion in 2013.
While direct foreign investment was $14.6 billion between 1984 and 2002, the figure is now $145 billion in total since 2003.
Davutoglu stated that Turkey now allocates $87.5 billion to education and $80.9 billion to health.
As for social services, he said the 2015 budget earmarked 26.5 billion Turkish liras for this sector compared to 1.37 billion Turkish liras back in 2002.
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