Turkish official rebuffs claims about Central Bank chief
ISTANBUL
Turkey’s presidential communications director has strongly denied claims that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was losing confidence in the Central Bank governor on monetary policy direction.
Rebuffing allegations in an Oct. 8 Reuters report, Fahrettin Altun said, “Fake news used to be a problem on social media. It seems that the mainstream media, too, suffers from the same issue now.”
“That even major organizations spread such lies is deeply concerning,” he said in his social media posts.
Altun also shared screenshots of the Reuters report and an analysis published by U.S. publication Foreign Policy, which included unreferenced allegations about Erdoğan’s health.
The Reuters report said the president was frustrated that an interest rate cut was delayed until just last month.
The Central Bank cut its key rate to 18 percent from 19 percent last month, after Kavcıoğlu, who was appointed in March, shifted the bank’s focus from the headline inflation (19.58 percent) to core inflation rate (16.98 percent).
Kavcıoğlu told investors in two online meetings on Oct. 7 that policy was sufficiently tight to tackle inflation and he expected core price measures to fall in the short term.
Core inflation indicators were trending downward in the near term, while temporary effects keeping prices elevated will fade, the governor said.
Kavcıoğlu also said on the call that policy will ensure disinflation as soon as possible and take into account possible risks.
He noted that the bank had been implementing tight policy for a year and last month’s rate cut did not change that.
The bank’s next Monetary Policy Committee meeting will be held on Oct. 21.
