So much for Central Bank independence

Nope, I am not going start on the new Central Bank governor Erdem Basci's long-time (four decades or so) friendship with economy czar Babacan and jump to some kind of "ingenious" conclusion that CBT is no longer independent!

But a sentence from the AKP's brochure on their policies so far, which was published along with their election manifesto, speaks for itself: " We have reduced interest rates! We have decreased the Central Bank policy rate, which was 44 percent back in 2002, to 6.25 percent in 2011"...

This does not show CBT's independence (or lack of it), but it does show how the AKP top brass see the Central Bank!

And BTW, the policy rate in 2002 is not the same as the one in 2011, but I guess that is not as important as the general logic of the statement itself.

HT to Radikal columnist Ugur Gurses for mentioning this in his column from yesterday.