Turkish market turmoil.

Turkey’s central bank chief signaled yesterday that aggressive policy easing would likely pause in January after one more rate cut this month, according to participants on an investor call, following a historic selloff of the lira. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan separately chose Nureddin Nebati, a strong supporter of his low rate policy, as treasury and finance minister overnight after Lutfi Elvan, who was seen as having more orthodox views, resigned the post. The lira fell a further 3.5% to reach 13.9 versus the dollar yesterday, near Tuesday’s record low of 14.0. The slide came after Turkish daily Cumhuriyet reported that the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers had decided to launch “infringement proceedings” against Turkey over its failure to release philanthropist Osman Kavala, in line with a European Court of Human Rights ruling. The lira selloff has been driven by a series of rate cuts to 15% from 19% in September – even as annual inflation hit 20% and is expected to near 30% next year after the lira depreciation. Economists have widely criticized the stimulus as reckless.