Minister: Economic confidence index sign of strong recovery
ANKARA
Turkey’s economic confidence index rose by 3.4 percent in April from the previous month, a development interpreted by Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak as a sign of recovery.
“The increase that continued from January is also an indicator of a strong recovery,” the minister tweeted after the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) released the data on April 28.
The recent moves by the country’s economic administration supported the rise of the index, he said.
“Inshallah, starting from the second quarter, we will achieve even higher levels thanks to our policies and steps for a structural transformation,” he said, sharing a graphic showing the index.
The index reached 84.7 points in April, up from 81.9 points in March, according to TÜİK.
The institute said the surge in economic confidence was mainly due to gains in consumer, real sector and services confidence indices.
“Consumer, real sector and services confidence indices increased to 63.5, 100 and 83.1, respectively,” TÜİK noted.
It added that retail trade and construction confidence indices dropped to 90.6 points and 53.9 points, respectively, in April.
TÜİK said economic confidence is a composite index that encapsulates consumers’ and producers’ evaluations, expectations and tendencies about the general economic situation.
A total of 20 subindices are used in the calculation, with data collected in the first two weeks of each month.
A value above 100 shows an optimistic outlook for the general economic situation, while a value below 100 signals a pessimistic outlook.
In 2018, the index saw its highest value in January at 105.2 points, while the lowest figure was recorded at 75.2 points in November.
