Consumer confidence jumps over 5 percent in November

ANKARA

Turkish consumers’ confidence in the economy increased for a second month in a row in November, according to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK).

The index hit 59.9 this month, a 5.2 percent gain from October following a 2. percent rise in the previous month, TÜİK said yesterday.

The figure was 57 last month, up from 55.8 previous month.

Attitudes over the general economic outlook posted the largest improvement in the month, jumping 6.9 percent to 78.5, it said.

The financial situation expectation of household index surged 6.1 percent month-on-month to 79.3 in November.

The number of people unemployed expectation index, a gauge of sentiment about the health of the labor market, bettered by 3.6 percent on a monthly basis to 58.8.

The largest improvement among sub-indices was in the probability of saving index, which tracks attitudes toward saving. The index saw a 13.1 percent, or a 2.74 point, rise compared to the previous month.

However, the probability of saving index saw a weaker rise of 0.5 percent, well behind the improvements in other measurements.

The sub-index which measures consumers’ probability of buying a house over the next 12 months jumped 5 percent in November from the previous month, after declining 0.9 percent on a monthly basis in October.

The statistics authority reported earlier this month that mortgage-financed home sales soared nearly 526 percent in October compared with the same month of 2018 to reach 50,411 units, accounting for 35.3 percent of total home sales in the country.

That came on top of the 410 percent rise on an annual basis in mortgage-financed home sales in September.

In a further sign of the improvement in consumer confidence, the country’s auto market (combined sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) expanded at 128 percent in October.

Data from the Automotive Distributors’ Association (ODD) showed earlier this month that passenger car sales increased nearly 138 percent on an annual basis to some 40,000 units that followed the 101 percent increase in passenger car sales in September.

TÜİK’s confidence survey showed that the sub-index for the probability of buying a car over the next 12 months advanced 11.2 percent in November from September.

The consumer confidence index is seen as a vital gauge of the overall health of the economy, indicating people’s sentiments about spending their money, which in turn gives clues about economic vitality in the days to come.

The index value is jointly calculated by TÜİK and the Central Bank of Turkey through measurement of consumer tendencies.