Turkish Central Bank governor Erkan resigns

ANKARA

Türkiye’s central bank chief Hafize Gaye Erkan said on Feb. 2 that she was resigning after less than a year on the job.

Erkan, the first woman governor of Türkiye's Central Bank, said in a message posted on X she's been proudly serving as the chair of the Central Bank since June 8, 2023, and the increase in Türkiye's reserves and economic data and indicators on inflation prove this success.

"A major reputation assassination campaign has recently been organized against me," Erkan said in her statement.

She added that she was stepping down "in order to prevent my family and my innocent child, who is not even one-and-a-half years old, from being further affected by this process."

Erkan thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In her statement, Erkan said that she had "requested from the president to be pardoned from my duties, which I have carried out with honor from the first day."

"I respect her decision and thank her for her service to our country," Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on Erkan’s resignation. The policies led by Erdoğan will continue to be implemented under the leadership of the new governor, he added.

Erkan, a finance executive in the United States, became the first-ever woman to head Türkiye’s Central Bank after Erdoğan appointed her as the institution’s governor last June.

Since she took the helm of the Central Bank in June after the May elections, the bank has raised the key interest rate by a massive 3,650 basis points as part of its efforts to bring inflation under control.

The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye Fatih Karahan was appointed as the new governor of the central bank to replace Erkan.