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 dollar this year, and the country is plagued by double-digit inflation.
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The resignation of bank president Murat Uysal was announced 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. The decree does not provide a reason for the replacement.
Uysal was in office at the central bank for sixteen months. He was appointed at the time after Erdogan was dissatisfied with the high interest rate and demanded a cut. 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.
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