Victor Ezeja
The new head of Turkey’s central bank, Hafize Gaye Erkan has moved back in with her parents after being priced out of Istanbul’s property market as a result of galloping inflation.
The former finance executive took up the central bank job in June after two decades in the United States where she worked with firms including Goldman Sachs and First Republic Bank.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHit by the soaring prices that have seen many young people struggling to find lodgings in Turkey’s capital, Erkan said, “We haven’t found a home in Istanbul. It’s terribly expensive. We’ve moved in with my parents”.
“Is it possible that Istanbul has gotten more expensive than Manhattan?” the 44-year-old told the Hurriyet newspaper.
Year-on-year inflation in Turkey stood at 61 per cent in November as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has allowed the lira currency to weaken while promising that a new team of economists with Wall Street experience would tackle years of economic crisis.
To quell growing anger, officials also capped rent increases at 25 per cent — though experts say that has only amplified the housing tensions, as owners try to push out occupants, sometimes fraudulently, in order to set new and higher rents.
The central bank of Turkey last month pushed up benchmark lending rates to 40 per cent in a bid to get rampant inflation under control.
“We’re nearing the end of our monetary tightening measures,” Erkan told the paper.
