Central bank governor in Turkey removed as lira routed

The removal follows the Turkish currency depreciating to a record low of 8.5793 per dollar

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. AP

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed central bank Governor Murat Uysal amid a rout in the lira.

Mr Erdogan named former Finance Minister Naci Agbal the new head of Turkey’s monetary authority, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on Saturday.

The removal followed weeks of declines in the currency, which weakened to a record low of 8.5793 to the dollar on Friday.

The lira dropped more than 30 per cent this year to become the worst-performing emerging market currency tracked by Bloomberg.

Mr Uysal, who was appointed in July 2019 after his predecessor was fired for defying the president’s calls for looser monetary policy, had been raising borrowing costs through a combination of rate increases and back-door measures since August.

But that approach failed to provide enough of a support for the currency or to rein in inflation, which is hovering at double digits, compared to the official target of 5 per cent.

Mr Agbal, who was finance minister in past governments under Mr Erdogan, had been serving as head of the Presidency Budget and Strategy Office since 2018.