Hafize Gaye Erkan, the new head of Turkey’s central bank, revealed her struggle with the relentless inflationary surge in Istanbul, forcing her to forgo finding a place of her own and move back in with her parents.
Speaking to the Hurriyet newspaper, Erkan, a 44-year-old finance executive with a career spanning firms like Goldman Sachs and First Republic Bank, expressed her difficulties in securing accommodation in Istanbul’s pricey property market.
“We’ve been unable to find a home in Istanbul. The costs are exorbitant. As a result, we’ve relocated to my parents’ house,” shared Erkan, who assumed her position in June following two decades in the United States.
Amidst her bewilderment, she queried, “Could Istanbul be more expensive than Manhattan?”
November witnessed a staggering year-on-year inflation rate of 61 percent, catalyzed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to devalue the lira while vowing that a new cadre of economists, seasoned by Wall Street, would grapple with the country’s longstanding economic woes.
To assuage mounting public discontent, authorities restricted rent hikes to 25 percent. However, experts note that this measure has aggravated housing issues, prompting landlords to oust tenants, sometimes employing fraudulent means, in order to establish new and elevated rental rates.
In a bid to curtail inflation, the central bank recently elevated benchmark lending rates to 40 percent.
“We are approaching the conclusion of our monetary tightening strategies,” Erkan remarked to the paper.
Source: AFP
