NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday its central bank makes its own decisions in an independent manner, following criticism by President Tayyip Erdogan that has unnerved markets and sent the lira lower.

"Here what we need to understand is that, yes, central bank is independent and it is taking its own decision. At the end of the day the performance of the central bank and performance of monetary policy is part of general economic performance," Davutoglu said during a webcast from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

(Reporting by Daniel Bases; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)