Turkish consumer confidence sharply declines in September

ANKARA

Turkish consumers’ confidence in the country’s economy sharply fell in September, down 13.2 percent on a monthly basis, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) has shown.

The consumer confidence index stands at 59.3 this month, while the index was 68.3 in August, TÜİK said on Sept. 20. 

Last month, the consumer confidence index fell 6.5 percent from 73.1 in July, which witnessed the highest data of this year.

The September data was the lowest in the last three years.

The index for consumers’ expectations for a better general economic situation in the coming 12 months this September fell to 74.6, down from 88.3 in August.

“The financial situation expectation of household index decreased by 10.4 percent compared to the previous month and became 76.7 in September. This decrease resulted from the increase of consumers expecting a worse financial situation of household in the next 12-month period,” the institute said.

TÜİK noted that the number of people unemployed expectation index also decreased 9.3 percent from August, standing at 67.2 in September, meaning fewer people expected a fall in unemployment.

Consumers’ tendencies to save money for the next 12 month-period fell in September to an 18.8 index value, versus last month’s index of 25.3.

The consumer confidence index calculated from the survey results is evaluated within the range of 0-200, indicating an optimistic outlook when the index is above 100, and a pessimistic outlook when it is below. The index value is calculated in cooperation with TÜİK and the Central Bank by measuring the tendencies of consumers.