UPDATE - Turkish consumer confidence index down in May

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Confidence of Turkish consumers in the economy fell by 13% in May, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said Tuesday.

On a monthly basis, the index was valued at 55.3 in May, down over eight points versus the previous month, according to the statistical authority.

In April, the consumer confidence index rose 6.9% to 63.5 from 59.4 in March.

The index value is jointly calculated by TurkStat and the Central Bank of Turkey through measurement of consumer tendencies.

In 2018, the index value hovered between 72.7 and 57.6 -- the highest being in July and the lowest in October.

On nearly 20 economic and financial criteria, consumers’ assessments and expectations for the next 12 months are measured in monthly tendency surveys.

The index is calculated from the survey results on a range of 0-200, with above 100 indicating an optimistic outlook, and below 100 a pessimistic outlook.

In May, the highest decline was seen in the probability of saving index, falling by 20.3% to 20.8.

The index for general economic situation expectations stood at 70.1, down 14.9% from 82.4 in April.

"The number of people unemployed expectation index which was 63.5 in April decreased by 11.3% and became 56.3 in May," TurkStat said.

It added that the financial situation expectation of household index dropped by 10.1% to stand at 73.9 in May.

The country's statistical authority will release the next survey results on June 20.