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ISTANBUL - Turkey has accepted the International Monetary Fund's final offer of US$19 billion in credit after Ankara requested an initial US$30 billion, daily newspaper Zaman reported on Monday.
Under normal conditions the amount of money that the IMF would offer a country is US$15 billion but the body raised its offer to US$19 billion during negotiations with Ankara.
The article did not specify what kind of agreement the deal would be.
Last week senior ruling AK Party sources told Reuters Turkey is set to agree to a deal with the IMF that will allow it to draw US$20-40 billion in funds if needed to weather the global credit crisis.
Turkey is not under the financial strains that have forced Iceland, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and Latvia to seek IMF aid, but has begun to see a slowdown in its US$700 billion economy and experienced a sharp currency depreciation.
Business leaders and economists say an IMF deal will be an important stabilising force as Turkey seeks to cope with the global financial crisis.
Turkey's last US$10 billion regular stand-by loan accord, part of a series of loan programmes which helped it emerge from a 2001 financial crisis, expired in May.
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