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On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan removed Central Bank governor Murat Uysal from office and replaced him with former Finance Minister Naji Iqbal after the Turkish lira fell to a record low.
This step came in a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette.
The lira closed at 8.5445 against the dollar on Friday, after falling to an all-time high of 8.58. The pound has fallen 30% against the dollar this year.
Uysal became governor of the central bank in July 2019, when Erdogan appointed him to succeed Murad Cetinakaya.
A record drop for the Turkish lira
Naji Iqbal held the financial portfolio from 2015 to 2018, when he was appointed head of the Directorate of Strategy and Presidential Budget.
A senior analyst at Fitch Ratings said Turkey had not tightened policy enough to support the lira, which fell to a new low on Friday, and that the country’s foreign exchange reserves and external financing remain weak.
Douglas Winslow, Reuters chief analyst for Turkey, told Reuters that increased currency pressure, double-digit inflation and the erosion of foreign exchange reserves “would significantly increase the chances” of raising official interest rates in order to year.
