Turkey: Mixed picture for sectoral confidence in Feb

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Confidence in Turkey's key service sectors improved while construction and retail trade fell on a monthly basis in February, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Monday.

The services confidence index rose 3.4% month-on-month to 98.5 in February, thanks to a rise in "demand-turnover" and its expectation, as well as business sentiment, TurkStat said in a statement.

The construction confidence index stood at 74.5 this month, indicating a fall of 5.7% from January.

According to the statement, the index for total employment expectations over the next three months in the construction sector decreased by 5.1% compared to last month to 88.5.

"Current overall order books index became 60.4 by decreasing 6.5%," it added.

The confidence index for retail trade fell 2% to 102.9 during the same period, driven by a deterioration in indices of current stock volumes, business activity-sales and business activity-sales expectations.