Confidence indices deteriorate

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Confidence indices for the services, retail trade and construction sectors decreased in August as compared to July.

The indices of confidence in the services, retail trade and construction sectors decreased 5 percent, 0.3 percent and 3.5 percent respectively in August, Turkey’s Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced yesterday.

The confidence indices, which were at 113.9 for services, 109.3 for retail trade and 89.9 for construction in July 2012, fell to 108.2, 109.0 and 86.8 respectively in August 2012.

Sector confidence indices can have values between 0 and 200. An optimistic outlook is indicated when an index is above 100, and a pessimistic outlook is indicated when it is below 100.

The decrease in the service sector’s confidence index stemmed from the deterioration in the business environment over the past three months and demand-turnover in the same period. The drop in the retail trade confidence index resulted from the deterioration in business activity and sales over the past three months, while the decrease in the construction sector’s confidence index stemmed from the deterioration in current overall orders and total employment expectations for the next three months.