Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fired the governor of the country’s central bank and replaced him with a former finance minister after the local currency lost 33% of its value in recent months.
Murat Uysal, now ex-governor of Turkey’s central bank was just 16 months into his four-year term when he was fired by the Turkish president in the early hours of Saturday.
According to the Financial Times, Uysal had faced criticism from financial investors for the high-interest rates even as the local currency lost more than 30% of its value against the dollar this year in what was viewed as a concession to Erdogan, who has demanded that the bank keeps rates low to spur economic growth.
Mr Uysal will be replaced by Naci Agbal, who served as Mr Erdogan’s finance minister between 2015 and 2018 and is now the head of the presidential budget office.
Erdogan’s quick decision to fire the central bank’s governor propelled Lebanese citizens to quickly criticise the Lebanese system which has kept Riad Salameh, central bank governor, in position even after the Lebanese Lira lost 80% of its value.
Turkey’s central bank governor Murat Uysal was fired from his post today after the Turkish lira reached a new record low.
The Lira lost 33% of its value during the last year. Meanwhile in Lebanon, the national currency lost 80% of its value and our governor is still untouched. pic.twitter.com/R2mv5zgzUM— Omar Tamo (@OmarTamo19) November 7, 2020
Riad Salameh has previously defended himself against officials accusing him of worsening Lebanon’s economic crisis, saying that there is a “coordinated campaign” against him.
It is certainly a phenomenon in Lebanon that those who come to certain power positions do somehow secure their seats for life or try by all means to stay put whatever their failures and the consequences on the country.
