A Central Bank Shake-Up Puts Turkey’s Economic Recovery in Peril

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s sudden replacement of Turkey’s central bank governor with a like-minded loyalist portends deeper banking and financial crises to come and complicates the government’s battle to revive the economy by further damaging the central bank’s credibility. Erdogan abruptly fired Central Bank Governor Naci Agbal on March 20 and replaced him with Sahap Kavcioglu, an economist and banker, as well as a former member of parliament from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). The Borsa Istanbul lost 9%, triggering two circuit breakers on March 22. ...