Turkey: Consumer confidence index down in August

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkish consumers' confidence in the country's economy dropped in August, down 6.5 percent, month-on-month, Turkey's statistical authority said on Friday.

The consumer confidence index stands at 68.3 this month, versus 73.1 in July.

The index value is calculated through a collaboration between TurkStat and the Central Bank by measuring consumers' tendencies.

Last month, the consumer confidence index rose 4 percent from 70.3 in June. Since the beginning of this year, the index value has hovered between 73.1 and 68.3 -- the highest in July and the lowest this month.

Consumers’ assessments and expectations on nearly 20 economic and financial items are measured in monthly tendency surveys.

According to TurkStat, the consumer confidence index calculated from the survey results is evaluated on a range of 0-200, indicating an optimistic outlook when the index is above 100, and a pessimistic outlook when below.

Last year, the highest consumer confidence index value was seen in May, 72.8, while it was down in the last five months of 2017 and stood at 65.1 in December.

This August, consumers' expectations for a worse general economic situation over the next 12 months rose, as the general economic situation expectation index is 88.3 -- falling 8.3 percent from 96.3 in July.

"The number of people unemployed expectation index decreased by 3.6 percent compared to the previous month and became 74.1 in August. This decrease stemmed from the rise of people expecting an increase in the number of unemployed persons in the next 12 months," TurkStat said.

The financial situation expectation of household index, showing consumers' expectations for the household financial situation over the coming 12 months, also fell 7 percent to reach 85.5 this month, signaling pessimism.

On the saving side, TurkStat reported that consumers' tendencies to save money for the next 12 months period dropped, so last month's probability of saving index of 27.1 dropped 6.6 percent to 25.3 in August.

Turkey's statistical authority will release the next results on Sept. 20.