Turkish business confidence jumps 5 percent in March
ANKARA
The business confidence index increased by 5 percent on a monthly basis to touch 102.1 in March, the Turkish Central Bank said on March 25.
That followed the 4.5 percent month-on-month improvement in business sentiment recorded in February.
The 100-point level on the index separates optimism from pessimism.
Seven of the business sentiment survey’s eight main sub-indices rose in March month-on-month, the Central Bank data showed.
The sharpest increase was registered in the sub-index measuring the total amount of orders in the past month. The related index soared 16 percent in March from February. The sub-index related to the total amount of current orders also increased 11 percent on a monthly basis.
The index for the amount of stock of finished goods declined one percent. While an increase in this particular sub- index points out a decrease in the amount of stocks, a decline indicates a rise in the amount of stocks.
The survey also suggested that businesses expect an increase in employment in the next three months while they also said they would increase their fixed capital investments over the same period.
On a related note, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) reported on March 25 that confidence in the key sectors of services and construction improved while retail trade slightly went down in March compared to the previous month.
Turkish construction sector confidence index reached to 54.1 this month, up 4.4 percent from February as overall order books and total employment expectation indices did better.
The services sector confidence index rose by 2.6 percent month-on-month to 81.6 in March thanks to improvement in business situation, demand-turnover and demand-turnover expectation indices.
The retail trade confidence index slightly fell by 0.1 percent during the same period to 90.7.
“In retail trade sector; business activity-sales expectation index decreased by 3.9 percent. However, business activity-sales and current volume of stock indices increased by 4 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively,” TÜİK said.
Sectoral confidence indices calculated from the monthly survey results are evaluated within the range of 0-200, according to the statistical office.
