Süreyya Serdengeçti is a Turkish

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and former Governor of the

Central Bank of Turkey The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, CBRT ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası, TCMB, literally "The Turkish Republic Central Bank") is the central bank of Turkey. Its responsibilities include conducting monetary and exchange rate po ...

. He is currently working as a lecturer in Economics at the

TOBB University of Economics and Technology TOBB University of Economics and Technology is a private non-profit foundation university in Ankara, Turkey. History Tobb University is a private non-profit cooperative education university established in 2003 by The Turkish Chambers and Commo ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Early life

He was born in 1952 in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey. After attending the Galatasaray high school in Istanbul, he studied Economics at the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering a ...

and earned his BS degree in 1979. From 1984 to 1986, he attended The Graduate Program in Economic Development at (GPED) at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

and received a

master’s degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Economics.

Career

Serdengeçti entered the Central Bank of Turkey in 1980 and worked first in the Exchange Department's

Debt Relief Debt relief or debt cancellation is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. From antiquity through the 19th century, it refers to domestic debts, in particu ...

division, then the Foreign Exchange Transactions division. After returning from the US, he served as the manager of the Foreign Exchange Transactions and from 1992 onward as the Open Market Operations manager. In 1994, he was appointed as the press spokesman of the Central Bank and also as assistant general secretary. Later that year he moved to the Foreign Relations department, being responsible for balance of payments and international institutions. Serdengeçti was appointed to the post of general manager for the Markets department in 1996, covering the fields of international reserve management, foreign exchange interventions, interbank money market,

open-market The term open market is used generally to refer to an economic situation close to free trade. In a more specific, technical sense, the term refers to interbank trade in securities. In economic theory Economists judge the "openness" of markets a ...

operations and

treasury auctions A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

. In 1998 he was promoted to the post of vice governor in charge of operations and statistics. Serdengeçti was appointed as the 20th Governor of the Central Bank by the coalition government on 14 March 2001, succeeding Gazi Erçel, who had resigned. The Turkish government announced an economic program on 14 April 2001, called the Derviş program,

Kemal Derviş Kemal Derviş (; born 10 January 1949) is a Turkish economist and politician, and former head of the United Nations Development Programme. He was honored by the government of Japan for having "contributed to mainstreaming Japan's development as ...

being then the Minister of State responsible for the economy, and the parliament amended the central bank law on 25 April 2001 and gave autonomy to the Central Bank of Turkey. These steps and a new monetary policy enabled Serdengeçti to better deal with chronic instability issues in the Turkish economy. During his five-years of governorship, the US dollar exchange rate fell from 1.60 to 1.30 Turkish Lira, the annual inflation rate from 37.51% to 8.15% and the overnight interest rate from 120% to 13.5%. On 1 January 2005 the Turkish currency

Lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

was converted into New Turkish Lira by dropping six zeros. Serdengeçti’s official term ended on 14 March 2006. He joined the TOBB Economics and Technology University's Economics department as a senior lecturer.

References

* Central Bank of Turkey
''Biography of Süreyya Serdengeçti''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serdengecti, Sureyya Turkish non-fiction writers Turkish economists Galatasaray High School alumni Middle East Technical University alumni Living people 1952 births Turkish civil servants Governors of the Central Bank of Turkey Academics from Istanbul Vanderbilt University alumni Academic staff of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology