By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) - Economic confidence in Turkey slipped month-on-month in October, falling 1.5 percent, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed on Monday.
The economic confidence index dropped to 101.4, down from 103 in September, TurkStat said in a statement, attributing the decrease to a fall in consumer, services and retail trade confidence indices.
The three indices declined in the month to 67.3, 101.1 and 104, respectively.
According to the report, sub-indices for real sector and construction showed improvements, rising to 112.2 and 84.2, respectively.
"It indicates an optimistic outlook about the general economic situation when economic confidence index is above 100, whereas it indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100," it said.
In August, Turkey’s economic confidence rose to its highest level in more than five years, helping the Turkish lira to strengthen against the dollar.
Turkey's annual growth rates were 6.1 percent in 2015 and 3.2 percent last year. The Turkish economy expanded beyond expectations in the first (5.2 percent) and second (5.1 percent) quarters of 2017, according to Turkstat.
The government aims to hit an annual economic growth of 5.5 percent by 2020 according to the medium-term economic program released on Sept. 27.