Economics
Erdogan Ousts Central-Bank Head, Installs Interest-Rate Ally
- Naci Agbal replaced in late-night decree after raising rates
- New governor is banking professor, pro-government columnist
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Two days after a bigger-than-expected increase in interest rates, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed the country’s third central-bank governor in less than two years, and replaced him with an advocate of lower rates.
Erdogan fired Governor Naci Agbal, who was appointed in November, and gave the job to Sahap Kavcioglu, according to a decree published after midnight on Saturday in the Official Gazette. Agbal’s abrupt removal comes on the heels of a 200 basis-point interest-rate hike by the central bank on Thursday, double what was expected in a Bloomberg survey.