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Yilmaz: continuity candidate |
After weeks of confusion, Turkey’s central bank has a new governor. Analysts hope he will preserve the largely successful policies of the outgoing chairman. Durmus Yilmaz has been appointed to replace Sureyya Serdengecti, who retired on March 14 after five years in charge. The appointment follows weeks of uncertainty after staunchly secularist president Ahmet Necdet Sezer turned down the AKP government’s initial suggestion of Adnan Buyukdeniz, chief executive of Albaraka Turk, an Islamic bank.
Yilmaz’s name had not been the most widely predicted by the market during the ensuing weeks of instability – acting governor Erdem Basci, and treasury undersecretary Ibrahim Canakci had been seen as the front runners.
But analysts hope the new governor will provide continuity – Yilmaz was already a member of the monetary policy committee and, as such, is very much part of a monetary policy stance that is already in place.
“Although Yilmaz was not among those most frequently mentioned as the government’s likely choice, his appointment comes as a relief not only because of its orthodox nature but also simply as the end to the period of uncertainty,” says Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein analyst Sonal Desai.