Turkey's top central bankers defended themselves against criticism that they have lost focus on their core task of fighting inflation to tackle volatile capital inflows, exchange rate stability and other threats.

Speaking on Wednesday on a panel at an annual Finance Summit in Istanbul, Anne Sibert, a prominent economist and member of the monetary policy committee of the central bank of Iceland, said Turkey's monetary policy committee should lower its inflation target from 5.5% and leave other bodies to control the exchange rate and ensure financial stability.