Economic confidence in Turkey fell 9 percent in August, compared to last month, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) announced on Wednesday, indicating that it fell to the lowest level in the last nine years, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The economic confidence index slipped to 83.9 this month, down from 92.2 in July, according to the statement from TurkStat.
This month-on-month decrease was driven by deterioration in the consumer, real sector, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices.
“The consumer, real sector, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices decreased to 68.3, 96.3, 88, 93.4 and 68.8 in August, respectively,” it said.
The construction confidence index saw a slide of 10.7 percent during the same period. The consumer and real sector confidence indices followed with 6.5 and 5.1 percent declines, respectively.
Sub indexes on services and retail trade confidence declined 4.2 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
The Economic Confidence Index is seen as a significant reading of the economic course as it is a composite index that aggregates sub-indices of the consumer confidence, real sector, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices, reflecting an overall sentiment of the health of the economy.
“It indicates an optimistic outlook about the general economic situation when the economic confidence index is above 100, whereas it indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100,” it said.
