Turkish PM to head economic coordination, further clipping Şimşek wings

ISTANBUL - Reuters

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Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will chair meetings of Turkey’s Economic Coordination Board, the government said on May 27, in what appeared to be a further trimming of the powers of Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek.

Şimşek, an economic reformer, was in full charge of the economy in the previous government but his responsibilities have shrunk in the new cabinet announced this week, with some powers transferred to another
deputy prime minister, Nurettin Canikli.

Şimşek will continue to oversee the treasury and central bank but will no longer be in charge of regulating commercial lenders or the capital markets. Those responsibilities will pass to fellow Canikli.

In a memorandum published on May 27 in its Official Gazette, the government said the prime minister will head the Economic Coordination Board, taking over a position which Şimşek held in the previous government. In the prime minister’s absence, Şimşek will chair meetings.

The board meets regularly, usually on a weekly basis, to discuss and set macro-economic policy.

Şimşek’s reappointment this week had initially reassured investors, nervous that economic management might fall more into the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s advisers, who champion growth policies at the expense of badly needed reforms.