SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sacked the head of the state statistics agency, according to a presidential decree published on Saturday.
The dismissed chief of statistics Institute TUIK, Sait Erdal Dincer, came under fire after releasing data this month that put the annual inflation rate at a 19-year high of 36.1 figure.
Erdogan named Erhan Cetinkaya to replace Dincer, the official Gazette said on Saturday.
Opposition parties and critics have accused TUIK of meddling with official data, such as inflation, for political reasons. The institute has dismissed the allegation, but researchers have begun alternative inflation calculations.
The opposition said the figure was underreported, claiming that the real cost of living increases was at least twice as high, according to AFP.
But Erdogan reportedly criticized the statistics agency in private for publishing data that he felt overstated the scale of Turkey’s economic malaise.
Embroiled in a currency crisis, Turkey had been dogged by soaring inflation that is expected to hit a near 20-year high around 47% in January, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The Turkish leader also appointed a new justice minister, naming former deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag to replace veteran ruling party member Abdulhamit Gul.
Bozdag, 56, had served as justice minister under Erdogan between 2013-2015 and 2015-2017, before being a deputy prime minister until 2018, when the role was abolished as part of constitutional changes that gave Erdogan sweeping executive powers.
