After being sworn in as President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan reshuffled most of his ministers. Yesterday, Erdogan appointed the economist Mehmet Simsek, respected in the financial markets, as Minister of Finance.
Hakan Fidan, a longtime confidant of Erdogan, will become the new foreign minister. Mevlut Cavusoglu, who served as Turkey’s foreign minister for nearly a decade, is no longer part of the new government.
Simsek can abandon the policy of low interest rates
Türkiye is currently struggling with hyperinflation, which is officially around 44 percent. Experts also blame Erdogan’s policy, which has so far stuck to low interest rates, contrary to economic logic, in order to combat inflation.
On the one hand, Simsek is a representative of a traditional fiscal and economic policy – he is expected to abandon the controversial low interest rate policy. Simsek previously held the position of Minister of Finance under Erdogan, but he was dismissed in 2018 after the transition to the presidential system.
Erdogan also appointed Chief of Staff Yasir Guler as Minister of Defense, and the new Minister of Interior is the former Governor of Istanbul, Ali Yerlikaya. The only woman in the cabinet is the new Family Minister Mahinur Özdemir Goktas.
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