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the resignation, has in mind in terms of reshaped economic management.
Uysal – like his predecessor Murat Cetinkaya who was fired by Erdogan in July 2019, with the president expressing his displeasure at the lack of rate cuts
to boost the economy – was sacked
Erdogan, known for his ‘Erdoganomics’, is famously averse to rate hikes and is widely viewed as being in charge of monetary policy. Prior to the backdoor efforts, the central bank wiped out almost all of Turkey’s FX reserves attempting to intervene in the currency markets to defend the lira.
At the last meeting of its monetary policy committee on October 22, the central bank bucked expectations for a substantial interest rate hike and held its policy rate steady at 10.25%, triggering sharp losses in the lira. The bank also surprised markets a month earlier when it hiked rates.
Turkey’s official annual inflation rate stands just under 12% but many sceptical analysts believe that in reality inflation is three to four times higher. Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University, tweeted on November 6 that his latest measure was 48.49%.
Mehmet Mus, the deputy parliamentary group chairman for the ruling AKP party, said Albayrak had taken important steps to strengthen the economy and that he hoped Erdogan would not accept the resignation.
“We personally witnessed his diligent work. If our president sees fit, I hope he continues at his post,” Mus said on Twitter.
“New central bank boss Agbal “might do a better job in getting approval for a rate hike"
abruptly by a decree published in the Official Gazette. No explanation was provided. Naci Agbal, 52, who served as finance minister between 2015 and 2018, was appointed as the new central bank governor.
Famously averse
The most recent phase of Turkey’s economic management has largely
seen the central bank attempting to introduce backdoor monetary tightening in an attempt at strengthening the lira without formally raising interest rates –
New central bank boss Agbal “might do a better job in getting approval for a rate hike” given his former experience with the government and ruling party, Selva Demiralp, director of the Koc University- TUSIAD Economic Research Forum, told Reuters, adding: “Absent a rate hike,
I am afraid the financial crisis will only get worse with the depreciation in the lira that increases the external debt, triggering bankruptcies.”
Turkey has more than $100bn of foreign debt that needs repaying in the near future.
Moldova’s foreign policy reset
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
Moldova has been quite literally divided between east and
west since the earliest days
of independence, with the territory to the east of the Dniester river under the control of Russian-backed separatists. This long-frozen conflict meant it was viewed as one of the battlegrounds in the struggle for influence between Russia and the West, a situation played upon
by numerous politicians over the years. As successive changes of government caused it to ricochet in one direction or the other, and then back again, rampant corruption and state capture were overshadowed by geopolitics.
The latest presidential election ended with a landslide for Maia Sandu, leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS),
whose primary foreign policy aim is European integration. “We are 100% com- mitted to European integration. This is the core of our foreign policy message, part of our political DNA,” vice-president of the PAS, MP and deputy parliament speaker Mihai Popsoi says in a phone interview with bne IntelliNews after the vote.
However, unlike some of her predecessors at the top of Moldovan politics, who delib- erately stoked rivalry between Russia and the West for their own ends, Sandu has talked since her poll victory of “balance” in Moldovan foreign policy, and her desire for a good relationship with Russia.
The day after the runoff vote against incumbent President Igor Dodon, who received verbal (if not much financial)
support from Russian politicians ahead of the election, Sandu said Chisinau will “establish a pragmatic dialogue with all countries, including Ukraine, Romania, European nations, Russia and the US.”
On November 18, PAS announced on its Facebook page that Sandu had met with the ambassadors of Moldova’s four most important foreign partners: the EU, the US, Russia and Romania. According to the posts, warm words were exchanged with all. At the meetings, Sandu spoke of bringing Moldova out of isolation and pursuing a foreign policy in the interests of Moldovan citizens. While perhaps her warmest words were for the EU, she told the Russian ambassador that she wanted a “positive, pragmatic and predictable” relationship with Russia.
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