Turkey: Economic confidence rises to 89.8 in October

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economic confidence index rose to 89.8 in October, official data revealed on Wednesday.

The figure surged 4.5% from 86 in September, the Turkish Statistical Authority (TurkStat) said.

"This increase in economic confidence index stemmed from the increases in consumer, manufacturing industry, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices," TurkStat noted.

In October, the consumer index stood at 57, the real sector index at 104.2, services index at 90.7, retail trade at 102.3 and construction confidence index at 65.1.

The economic confidence index is a composite index that encapsulates consumers' and producers' evaluations, expectations, and tendencies about the general economic situation.

A total of 20 sub-indices are used in the calculation, with data collected in the first two weeks of each month.

In 2018, the index saw its highest value in January at 105.2 points, and the lowest figure was recorded at 75.2 points in November.