Turkey’s economic confidence index falls 15.4 pct in month

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

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Turkey’s economic confidence index fell by 15.4 percent in March due to decreases in a number of indices, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on March 30.

The economic confidence index fell by 15.4 to 74.85 in March, down from 88.50 in February.

The economic confidence index indicates an optimistic outlook about the general economic situation when the index is above 100 and a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.

“This decrease in the economic confidence index stemmed from decreases in the consumer, manufacturing industry, service, retail trade and construction confidence indices,” TÜİK said in a statement.

The consumer confidence index fell by 5.4 percent to 64.39 in March from 68.06 in February; the real sector confidence index decreased by 3 percent to 100.9; the service confidence index dropped by 0.7 percent to 101.25; the retail trade confidence index diminished by 0.4 percent to 102.97, and the construction confidence index went down by 1.6 percent to 83.67 over the same period.

The economic confidence index is a composite index that encapsulates consumers’ and producers’ evaluations, expectations and tendencies about the general economic situation.

The consumer confidence index, one of the composing indicators of the economic confidence index, is calculated from results of the Consumer Tendency Survey, which is conducted in coordination between TÜİK and Turkey’s Central Bank.

The manufacturing industry confidence index is calculated by the Central Bank while the services, retail trade and construction confidence indices are calculated by TÜİK.