A $10bn loan agreement between Turkey and the Inter--national Monetary Fund expired at the weekend, removing an anchor for its economic and structural reform programme just as the economy appears to be heading into difficulties.

The expiry of the agreement, originally designed to help Turkey out of a crippling financial crisis seven years ago, brings to an end one of the most intense and, in many respects, most successful of the fund's current operations. Turkey received its first IMF loan in 1961.