ANKARA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish central bank governor Hafize Gaye Erkan on Friday evening announced her resignation.
In a message posted on X, Erkan, the first woman governor of Türkiye's central bank, said she chose to resign after a major "reputation assassination campaign" had recently been organized against her.
"To prevent my family and my innocent child, who is not even one and a half years old, from being further affected by this process, I have requested from our President to be pardoned from my duty," read her post.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said Erkan's decision was personal and she took it at her own discretion.
"I respect her decision and thank her for her service to our country," Simsek said.
Recent media reports claimed that Erkan allowed her family, particularly her father Erol, to be involved in the decision-making process of the central bank, and authorized wasteful spending from the bank's budget.
Erkan was appointed as the central bank chief in June, 2023 after Erdogan's re-election and introduced a sharp tightening cycle since then, reversing the previous low-rate policy that left many Turks struggling to afford food and other basic goods.
The central bank's interest rate has since then been raised from 8.5 percent to the current 45 percent.
