Turkey: Economic confidence up in February

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economic confidence index this February rose 1.2 percent month-on-month, the country's statistical authority announced Wednesday.

According to TurkStat, the index stood at 79.4 in February, up from 78.5 in January.

The institute said the surge in economic confidence was mainly due to gains in real sector and services confidence indices.

"Real sector and services confidence indices rose to 96.9 and 79.5 in February, respectively.

"On the other hand, consumer, retail trade and construction confidence indices dropped to 57.8, 90.8 and 51.8, respectively," it said.

TurkStat said 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.

A value above 100 shows an optimistic outlook for the general economic situation, while a value below 100, a pessimistic outlook.

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