Government denies resignation claims about Deputy PM Babacan


The Prime Ministry's office refuted the claims on Thursday that Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and Central Bank governor Erdem Başçı had submitted their resignations following Babacan's two-hour long meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on late Wednesday.Turkish media speculated over the last 24 hours that Başçı and Babacan had offered to resign at the meeting due to the disputes with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on economic policy.However, a statement by Davutoğlu's office strongly denied the claims, saying the meeting was not unexpected, it was rather a routine meeting about the G20 group as Turkey this year holds the rotating presidency.Başçı has been at odds with Erdoğan over monetary policy for months, as Erdoğan has called on the bank to decrease the rates by pointing to declining oil prices, which contributes to the reduction of the current account deficit - one of the country's main economic obstacles. On Tuesday, Turkey's central bank cut all its main interest rates and lowered its main one-week repo rate for the second straight month, trimming it by 25 basis points to 7.5 percent.