Ali Babacan, who once led economic policy for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said key data that maps the country’s economic performance was no longer trusted.
Babacan, who rose to deputy prime minister in the AKP government, spoke hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, now his political rival, fired 10 top officials of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK).
Turkey’s economic institutions, including the statistics institute, were now under political pressure, Babacan, who leads the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), said in an interview with Fox TV on Tuesday.
In a presidential decree published in the country’s Official Gazette on Tuesday, Erdoğan said he dismissed 10 regional heads of TÜIK, including for Istanbul, the southern city of Antalya, Turkey’s industrial heartland of Bursa, and for Konya, a manufacturing hub in Anatolia. He provided no explanation for the firings.
Babacan said it was now clear to people what happens when the heads of institutions do not work in tandem with the government.
“First of all, confidence in Turkey and the figures must be re-established,” said Babacan. “Its reputation must be repaired”.
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Over the past two years, the AKP has replaced the head of TÜIK, which is responsible for publishing inflation data and other key figures, and the central bank’s governor with hand-picked officials. The country’s banking association is run by the chief of the largest-state run bank, which Erdoğan in turn controls as chairman of Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund.
Read more: ahval
