Highly-criticized Central Bank head moves from public lodgings

Neşe Karanfil ANKARA

Central Bank Governor Erdem Başçı, who has recently been criticized by many political figures for not cutting the Bank’s rates, moved on Feb. 7 from his public lodgings, in which he had lived for the past four years. Başçı was claimed to have moved to another house, which is close to his children’s school.

After a flurry of interest rate cuts in major emerging economies, Başçı had said the Bank might hold an interim meeting this week if annual inflation fell more than 1 percentage point in January.

He then scrapped the idea of holding a policy meeting to cut rates at the beginning of this month, as official data had showed inflation fell a bit less than 1 percent, dropping to 7.24 percent from 8.17 percent in December.

Many political figures, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have raised their level of criticism against him since then. Now, eyes are on the Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled on Feb. 24, in the wake of strong currency fluctuations which have seen the Turkish Lira hit historic lows against the U.S. dollar.

In the midst of these developments, it has been learned Başçı moved from his public lodgings, where he and his family had resided for over four years. He was claimed to have rented a house, which is close to his children’s school.

Başçı was appointed to the Central Bank in 2003 as the vice governor. He then became the head of the bank in 2011. After he became the governor, he moved to the public lodgings at the center of the Turkish capital Ankara. He was claimed to have left the lodgings on Feb. 7.