President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed a new head for the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK) on Saturday.
Erdoğan replaced Sait Erdal Dinçer, less than a year after his appointment, with Erhan Çetinkaya, who served as vice president of Turkey’s banking regulation agency. The reason for the move was unclear.
Prices have skyrocketed in recent months as Turkey has experienced economic turmoil with an unstable national currency. The annual inflation surged to a 19-year high of 36.1% in December, the highest annual reading since September 2002, driven by last year’s slide in the Turkish lira and rising global commodity prices.
The country relies heavily on imports for its energy needs and any consumer goods.
Turkey’s Central Bank revised its inflation predictions this week to 23.2% by the end of 2022 and down to 5% by the end of 2024.
