UPDATE- Turkey: Economic confidence rises to 89.8 in October

UPDATES WITH FINANCE MINISTER'S COMMENTS

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economic confidence index shot up to 89.8 in October, according to official data released Wednesday.

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

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

In October, consumer confidence came in at 57, while real sector confidence was 104.2, services confidence was 90.7, retail trade confidence was 102.3, and construction confidence was 65.1.

Commenting on the data, Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s treasury and finance minister, said the recovery in the markets continues strongly, as shown in the improvement in all the confidence metrics.

"The momentum we have achieved in this field will be one of the driving forces of change and sustainable growth we desire," he added.

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 January 2018, the index saw its highest value at 105.2 points, and the lowest figure was seen last November at 75.2 points.