Central Bank ‘makes right decisions at right time’

ISTANBUL

A number of top economic figures show their support to the Central Bank, which has been criticized.

The duties of Turkey’s Central Bank are defined in the law quite clearly and the government trusts in the Bank’s competent team, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said on Feb. 9 at the G-20 meetings in Istanbul.

Amid ongoing tension between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Central Bank’s administration over the latter’s interest rate policies, Babacan said he believed the Bank’s team “makes the right decisions at the right times.” 

“We believe the team makes the right decisions at the right times,” he said at a joint press meeting in Istanbul with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. “There could be more interaction and communication between central banks and governments, but there is no problem with it.” 

Babacan noted that different countries have different practices regarding their central banks, but the Turkish Central Bank has a “clearly defined” role in the law. 

Meanwhile, also speaking at the G-20 meetings, Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu described Central Bank Governor Erdem Başçı as “one of the world’s most successful governors,” Anadolu Agency reported. 

“He is not only a professor, but also one of the most successful central bank heads in the world in the post-global financial crisis period,” B-20 head Hisarcıkoğlu said about Başçı, who will serve as president of the G-20 Central Bank Governors group for Turkey’s period in the G-20 presidency. 

“As Larry Summers once said, ‘Confidence is the least costly incentive,’ and we strongly need this incentive today,” he added.