Istanbul, Feb 29 () - Economic confidence index saw its record-low level in Feb. The index fell by 14.8 percent compared to previous month decreasing from 83.88 to 71.46, and dipped the lowest level since Jan. 2012 when Turkstat began to release the index.
Economic confidence index indicates an optimistic outlook about the general economic situation when the index is above 100, on contrary it indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.
This decrease in economic confidence index stemmed from the fall in consumer, services, retail trade, construction and real sector (manufacturing industry) confidence indices, according to the data released by Turkstat. The index was 104.8 in Nov., 100.8 in Dec, and 83.9 in Jan.
Consumer confidence index fell by 7 percent to 66.64. Services and retail trade confidence indices fell by 3.5 percent and 2.4 percent to 89.24 and 106.18 respectively. Construction confidence index dropped by 1.3 percent compared to January, to 82.82 in February. Real sector confidence index decreased by 0.7 percent to 105.20.
Economic confidence index is a composite index that encapsulates consumers’ and producers’ evaluations, expectations and tendencies about general economic situation. The index is combined by means of a weighted aggregation of normalized sub-indices of consumer confidence, seasonally adjusted real sector (manufacturing industry), services, retail trade and construction confidence indices.
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