(Adds other recent appointments, background on Ermut) ISTANBUL, March 9 (Reuters) - Turkey named Salim Arda Ermut the new chief executive of its wealth fund on Tuesday in the latest in a flurry of top level changes that began in early November when a new central bank governor and finance minister were appointed. In the last week alone, President Tayyip Erdogan’s government has also overseen leadership changes at the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and, on Monday, at the Borsa Istanbul. Analysts said the moves, which also included two deputies under new Finance Minister Lutfi Elvan, were rapid and somewhat confusing even while they are common at the powerful state and financial institutions. They come in a four-month period in which the lira currency first soared 20% and then gave back half of those gains in the last two weeks. Erdogan’s heavy hand in economic decision-making is seen as a risk for Turkish assets given he abruptly fired the last two central bank chiefs after short stints, and regularly calls for lower rates. New Bank Governor Naci Agbal - appointed in the surprise November leadership overhaul that included Elvan - has hiked rates to 17%. But the lira slide and rising inflation have put pressure on him to raise rates again next week. Ermut, a former Turkey Wealth Fund board member seen as an Erdogan loyalist, replaces Zafer Sonmez, according to a presidential decision published in the official gazette. The fund has some $33.5 billion in equity. Sonmez had been named CEO in 2018 under Berat Albayrak, the former finance minister. Albayrak shocked Erdogan - his father in law - when he abruptly resigned a day after Agbal was named central bank chief in November. On Monday, the Istanbul stock exchange said Mehmet Hakan Atilla had resigned as CEO without giving details on the decision. A former executive at state lender Halkbank, Atilla served a 32-month jail sentence in New York in an Iran sanctions-busting case. Upon returning to Istanbul in 2019, Albayrak greeted him at the airport and he took the Borsa job. Last week the stats office (TUIK) named Sait Erdal Dincer its chairman, based on a separate presidential decision, after two consecutive acting chairs had served since May 2020. (Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, Ebru Tuncay, Nevzat Devranoglu and Can Sezer; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Dominic Evans)