Inflation is hitting every country right now, making it more and more difficult to survive. Due to inflation, the governor of the Central Bank of Turkey was forced to move back in with her parents.
The new governor of the Central Bank of Turkey, who had previously worked on Wall Street, said that due to the number of large price increases in the real estate market in the country, she had to move back in with her parents.
“We couldn’t find an apartment in Istanbul. It’s extremely expensive. We decided to move in with my parents,” Hafize Gaye Erkan said. In June 2023, Erkan became the first woman to be tasked with the Governor of the Bank of Turkey. This comes after two decades of living in the United States and holding management positions at several important banks.
“Why is Istanbul more expensive than Manhattan?” Erkan said. It’s a fair question too. In November, the annual inflation rate in Turkey was 62 percent, which was fueled mainly by the devaluation of the Turkish lira. According to a study conducted by the University of Istanbul, rent alone increased by 77.1 percent in Istanbul during the same period.
To fight inflation, the Central Bank of Turkey increased the benchmark interest rate from 8.5 percent in June 2023 to 40 percent in December 2023.
Amid tenant dissatisfaction, the Turkish government has also capped rent increases at 25 percent. According to experts, this might not solve the already existing problem of landlords getting rid of their current tenants in order to find new tenants who will pay higher rent.