Turkey's AKP election pledges to cost 1 percent of 2016 government spending - finance minister

ANKARA (Reuters) - Economic pledges made by Turkey's ruling AK Party in its campaign for a Nov. 1 election will cost 1 percent of next year's government spending, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in a televised interview on Wednesday. Simsek told Turkey's Bloomberg HT broadcaster that budget performance would be better than expected this year despite negative developments, and that he did not plan any tax increases or new taxes in 2016. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the cost of manifesto pledges would be around 19-20 billion lira ($6.5-6.8 billion). The pledges include raising the minimum wage to 1,300 lira ($434) a month, increasing the state pension, and providing interest-free loans to small businesses. (The story has been refiled to correct to 1 percent of GDP, not government spending.) (Reporting by Ece Toksabay, writing by Dasha Afanasieva; Editing by Nick Tattersall)