The president of the Turkish central bank has been fired and immediately replaced after the continued fall of the Turkish lira. The national currency has already depreciated more than 30 percent against the US dollar this year and the country is plagued by double-digit inflation.
The resignation of bank president Murat Uysal was announced on Saturday in the Turkish official journal, which published a decree by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He appointed former Finance Minister Naci Agbal as new bank president. No reason was given for the replacement in the decree.
The dismissal is ironic, because Uysal was taken out of the stable last year by Erdogan to replace the previous top man. At the time, the Turkish president was dissatisfied with the high interest rate and was looking for someone who did want to lower it. Last week, Erdogan said Turkey was fighting a “diabolical trinity of interest, exchange rates and inflation.”
In addition to the persistently high inflation, Turkey has to contend with dwindling reserves of foreign exchange. Financial markets are concerned about monetary policy, partly because interest rates remained unchanged in September. A new interest rate decision is expected on November 18.
– .
