Naci Ağbal (, born 1 January 1968) is a Turkish politician and former civil servant from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who served as the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

between 2015 and 2018. He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for the electoral district of

Bayburt Bayburt () is a city in northeast Turkey lying on the Çoruh River and is the provincial capital of Bayburt Province. According to the 2021 census the population is determined as around 82,274. Bayburt was once an important center on the ancient ...

, a position he held until 2018 after being elected during the June 2015 general election. He previously served as the Undersecretary to the Ministry of Finance between 2009 and 2015, resigning in order to contest the election.

Early life and career

Naci Ağbal was born on 1 January 1968 in

and graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Political Education in 1989. He began his career in the same year by entering the Inspection Board, later becoming a Finance Inspector in 1993. In 2003, he became a department manager at the General Directorate of Revenues and later became the General Director of Budget and Financial Control in 2007. In October 2008, he was elected by the

Cabinet of Turkey The Cabinet of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Kabinesi) or Presidential Cabinet ( tr, Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kabinesi) is the body that exercises supreme executive authority in Turkey. It is composed of the President and the heads of the ministries. From ...

to the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), having been an

Ahmet Yesevi University Ahmet Yesevi University ( kk, Ахмет Ясауи университеті, ''Ahmet Iasaýı ýnıversıteti''; tr, Ahmet Yesevi Üniversitesi) is a university in the city of Turkistan in Kazakhstan, named for the twelfth-century Sufi poet ...

Board of Trustees member since 8 March 2008. On 12 June 2009, he became the Undersecretary to the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

Political career

Ağbal was one of the 200 bureaucrats who resigned from their civil service positions in February 2015 in order to stand as candidates in the June 2015 general election. He was put forward as a Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate for his hometown of

and was subsequently elected to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

. He was re-elected in the November 2015 general election.

Minister of Finance

After the AKP won a parliamentary majority in the November 2015 election, Prime Minister

Ahmet Davutoğlu Ahmet Davutoğlu (; born 26 February 1959) is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as ...

appointed Ağbal as Finance Minister in his new government on 24 November 2015. Ağbal replaced

Mehmet Şimşek Mehmet Şimşek (born 1 January 1967) is a Turkish politician and economist who served as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from 24 November 2015 until the office's abolition on 9 July 2018. He previously served as the Minister of Finance from 2 ...

, who was appointed as a

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey The Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey is the abolished official deputy of the head of government of Turkey. Conventionally all of the junior partners in a coalition get one deputy, and they are ranked according to the size of their respective par ...

having served as Finance Minister since 2009. In his first statement since being appointed as Minister, Ağbal claimed that the

Turkish economy Turkey has an emerging market economy, as defined by the International Monetary Fund. The country is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999). Since 1995, Turkey is a party to the European Union–Turkey Custom ...

was entering a new 'reform' period and that the government would never stray from the principles of financial discipline. He stressed the need for creating a strong financial infrastructure in order to advance economic growth. Outgoing Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek praised his successor for his previous work as Undersecretary, with both committing their economic program to one of fiscal conservatism during their terms in government.

Governor of the Turkish Central Bank

On 7 November 2020, he was appointed the 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 pol ...

, replacing , who was unable to stop the fall of the

Turkish lira The lira ( tr, Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred ''kuruş''. History Ottoman lira (1844–1923) The lira, along with ...

, which had lost more than 40% against the

Dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, ...

since January 2020. He was sacked by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 20 March 2021.

References

External links