durmus yılmaz : central bank achievements and opportunities in turkey speech by mr durmus yılmaz, governor of the central bank of the republic of turkey, to members of the press at the central bank of the republic of turkey, ankara, 18 april 2006. * * * dear press members, i have been appointed governor of the central bank, which was vacated by former governor mr. sureyya serdengecti due to his retirement after having completed his five - year term on 14 march 2006 at the end of the business hours, and which has been filled temporarily by dr. erdem bascı as acting governor since then. i have worked in various positions of the central bank of the republic of turkey since 1980. as you have been closely following, many achievements have been made since then, especially in the last couple of years, that will always be remembered as the turning points in our economic history. distinguished members of the press, as a result of the legal amendments made in 2001, the greatest achievement in the area of monetary policy has been the attainment of the “ central bank independence ”. accordingly ; “ the bank shall, with the objective to achieve and maintain price stability, be authorized to utilize monetary policy instruments described in this law and shall also be authorized to directly determine and implement other monetary policy instruments that it deems appropriate. ” as expressed in the law on the central bank. such an authorization is called “ instrument independence ” in the modern economic literature. on the way to price stability, the inflation target is determined jointly with the government. as you know, these targets have been determined and announced as follows : 5 percent for 2006, 4 percent for 2007, 4 percent for 2008 our primary objective is to attain these targets. the central bank will support the growth and employment policies of the government, unless it conflicts with this objective. likewise, with the law no : 1211, the central bank has been entrusted with the power of establishing the “ exchange rate regime ” jointly with the government. the floating exchange rate regime, which was introduced within this framework, will continue to be implemented, preserving its basic implementation framework. turkey has grasped a golden opportunity to get rid of the damage created by inflation with which it has had to live more than 30 years. the period of “ declining inflation ” is about to end. our next objective will be to achieve and preserve the price stability. this will be the most significant contribution of the central bank in mob

abstract concept. as a matter of fact, we clearly witnessed the close relationship between financial education and financial stability in the recent global crisis. i believe that the awareness created by this crisis can be interpreted as an opportunity, as highlighting financial education will be beneficial for policy - makers, individuals and financial markets. in turkey, many institutions carry out projects with regard to financial education as a part of their responsibilities. in order to get the expected benefit from financial education programs, individuals ’ financial education needs that arise in different phases of their lives should be well identified. it is of great importance that financial education programs are devised in a way to meet these needs ; and the effects of these education programs are assessed in order to reshape future needs accordingly. bis central bankers ’ speeches due to the relationship between financial stability and financial education i have just mentioned, the central bank of turkey attaches special importance to the issue of financial education as other central banks do. as you all know, the cbt law lays down the primary objective of the central bank of turkey as maintaining price stability ; whereas taking measures to ensure stability in the financial system are stated among the main duties. in this respect, the cbt considers financial education from the viewpoint of financial stability. with our biannual financial stability report and other studies and announcements that we share with the public, we strive to raise awareness as regards the financial risks borne by households. meanwhile, we have recently accelerated our efforts on the international platform regarding this issue. the cbt is a member of the international network on financial education ( infe ) established under the auspices of the organization for economic cooperation and development ( oecd ), one of the leading organizations for financial education. within the scope of this platform, the cbt became one of the fifteen members of the national strategy on financial education subgroup, which was established in 2009. similarly, the cbt applied to join the studies of the financial inclusion subgroup under this platform ( established in february 2011 ) and also for membership in the task force on financial consumer protection that was established at the oecd. the central bank of turkey also contributes, via data collection and surveys, to international studies on financial access. within this framework, the cbt supports studies carried out by the consultative group to assist the poor ( cgap ) conducted in collaboration with the world bank. moreover, the cbt – along with other related public institutions – contributes to the efforts of the global partnership for financial inclusion ( gpfi ) initiated