Turkey's industrial output increases in January

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's calendar-adjusted industrial production rose 2.6 percent year-on-year in January 2017, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a statement Wednesday.

The term “calendar adjusted” is used to refer to data that has removed calendar and holiday-originated effects.

Two of three main sub-indexes increased compared with January 2016 while the mining and quarrying index suffered, the statement said.

The mining and quarrying index decreased by 13.7 percent while the manufacturing index increased by 2.8 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply index rose by 7.2 percent.

"The increase in industrial production data points out that the country started the year with a stronger recovery than recent leading indicators such as PMI [ Purchasing Managers' Index] and confidence indexes showed," said Muammer Komurcuoglu, an economist from IS Investment

The significant impact of the government's measures seen in March showed that the economic improvement would accelerate in the coming months, Komurcuoglu added.

The production level was also higher -- 1.3 percent -- compared with the figure from December 2016.

Among the sub-indexes, the manufacturing index led the way with a 1.6 percent increase and the mining and quarrying index rose 0.6 percent on a month-on-month basis. The electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning index was estimated to see a decrease of 4.1 percent.

The production of intermediate goods saw the largest decline among the main industrial groupings -- 1.8 percent -- from the previous month. All main industrial groupings except non-durable goods were down, the statement added.

"When the seasonally and calendar-adjusted main industrial groupings (MIGs) were examined, the largest increase was in energy, by 3.7 percent in January 2017, compared to the previous month," the institute said.

According to a survey conducted by Anadolu Agency’s Finance Desk on Monday, the median estimate for annual industrial production in 2017 stands at 2.3 percent.

Turkey's industrial output is deemed a vital indicator for the economy as it is seen as a preliminary gauge for GDP growth.