Erdogan fires central bank deputy governor

Sunbd Desk , Published: 2021-03-30 15:31:33, Updated: 2021-03-30 15:31:33

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed the deputy governor of the central bank, only days after its head was also fired in an abrupt decision that rattled global markets.

Murat Cetinkaya, a veteran banker who worked at the Istanbul stock exchange and joined the central bank in 2019, was sacked after midnight on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported, citing a presidential decree published in the country’s Official Gazette.

A Bloomberg report said Mustafa Duman, a previous board member at Morgan Stanley, was chosen as his replacement.

The news follows the dismissal of the central bank’s reformist governor Naci Agbal on March 20, which sent shock waves across markets and triggered fresh worries for millions of Turks concerned about their savings. Agbal was known for his staunch opposition against high interest rates.

He was replaced by Sahap Kavcioglu, a government loyalist who shares Erdogan’s unpopular economic view that high interest rates drive inflation.