Süreyya Serdengeçti is a Turkish

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, 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 ...

and former Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey. 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 university, private Nonprofit organization, non-profit university in Ankara, Turkey. History It was established in 2003 by the :tr:Türkiye_Odalar_ve_Borsalar_Eğitim_ve_Kültür_Vakfı ...

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Early life

He was born in 1952 in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey. After attending the

Galatasaray High School Galatasaray High School (, ), established in Istanbul in 1481, is the oldest and Selective school, highly selective high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational institution after Istanbul University, which was establi ...

in Istanbul, he studied Economics at the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

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 university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

and received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate 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 prac ...

in Economics.

Career

Serdengeçti entered the Central Bank of Turkey in 1980 and worked first in the Exchange Department's Debt Relief 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 Operation In macroeconomics, an open market operation (OMO) is an activity by a central bank to exchange liquidity in its currency with a bank or a group of banks. The central bank can either transact government bonds and other financial assets in the ope ...

s 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 In international economics, the balance of payments (also known as balance of international payments and abbreviated BOP or BoP) of a country is the difference between all money flowing into the country in a particular period of time (e.g., a ...

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 Interbank, formally the Banco Internacional del Perú Service Holding S.A.A. is a Peruvian provider of financial services. History In 1897, Elias Mujica opened an agency at the Jirón de la Unión in Lima's historic centre under the name o ...

money market, open-market operations and treasury auctions. 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 (; 10 January 1949 – 8 May 2023) was a Turkish economist and politician who was head of the United Nations Development Programme. He was honored by the government of Japan for having "contributed to mainstreaming Japan's developm ...

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 In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

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 Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...

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