According to a Turkish presidential decree, cited by Reuters, Ankara removed its central bank governor, Murat Cetinkaya, early on Saturday and replaced him with the bank's deputy governor, Murat Uysal.
There have been no reports why the replacement occurred.
In 2018, the Turkish economy struggled due to a depreciation of the national currency, the lira, which fell nearly 40 percent against the US dollar as relations between Ankara and Washington deteriorated. The situation significantly worsened in August, when US President Donald Trump authorized a doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Turkey, up to 50- and 20-percent, respectively. However, by year's end the Turkish currency had recovered somewhat.
Turkey's budget deficit skyrocketed up to 225 percent in the first five months of the current year, however, according to Reuters. The Turkish Treasury and Finance ministry has reportedly drafted measures to prevent a further deterioration in the domestic economy.
In particular, measures including raising taxes on high-income individuals, lowering corporate taxes, and transferring the central bank's 46 billion lira ($8 billion) in legal reserves to the budget.
According to Reuters, planned measures were postponed until October 2019.
