Turkey: Consumer confidence index down in April

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish consumers' confidence in the country's economy has fallen 5.8% this month amid coronavirus fears, Turkey's statistical authority said on Wednesday.

The consumer confidence index came in at 54.9 month-on-month in April, TurkStat data showed.

Last month, the figure was 58.2.

The general economic situation expectation index was 74.8, down from 75.6 in March, a 1.1% decrease on a monthly basis.

"The financial situation expectation of household index for the next 12-month period, which was 78.6 last month, decreased 7.8% to 72.5 in April," it said.

TurkStat predicted that the number of people unemployed expectation index for a one- year period also dropped 6.7% to 53.8 in April.

"The probability of saving index in the next 12-month period, which was 21.2 in March, decreased 13.1% to 18.4 in April," it said.

The index value is jointly calculated by TurkStat and the Turkish Central Bank through measuring consumer tendencies.

On nearly 20 economic and financial criteria, consumers’ assessments and expectations for the next 12 months are measured in monthly tendency surveys.