Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has approved the nomination of a respected World Bank official to run the country's battered economy, Anatolia news agency reported Saturday, March 3.
Kemal Dervis, 52, the World Bank's vice president for poverty reduction and economic management, will now become state minister for the economy following a government decree signed by Sezer on Friday.
A political clash last week fueled a run on the lira, which forced the government to abandon a currency peg and watch the lira plunge around 30 percent against the dollar, wrecking an ambitious anti-inflation drive.
Turkey is struggling to put its economy back on track after it cut the currency loose, breaching a three-year economic reform program backed by a four billion dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile, the head of Turkey's top banking regulatory authority (BDDK) resigned Saturday after his organization was placed under the control of Dervis' ministry.
Zekeriya Temirel, 52, known for his honesty and battling corruption, is thought to have been angered by the decision to place the independent regulatory body under the supervision of a government minister.
Turkish law indicates the BDDK's independence must be guaranteed and kept away from ministerial control.
Sureyya Serdengecti was also named on Friday as Turkey's new central bank chief. He had been working at the bank since 1980 and was a deputy bank governor since 1998. The appointments were generally well received by the markets, which have only recently stabilized after last week's cash crunch. — (AFP, Ankara)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
