Turkey: Consumer confidence index at 57.3 in October

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's consumer confidence index stands at 57.3 in October, down 3.4 percent on a monthly basis, the country's statistical authority revealed on Tuesday.

The index value is calculated in cooperation with TurkStat and the Central Bank by measuring tendencies of consumers.

Since the beginning of this year, the index value has remained between 73.1 and 57.3 -- the highest in July and the lowest in October.

On nearly 20 economic and financial items, consumers’ assessments and expectations are measured in monthly tendency surveys.

The consumer confidence index calculated from the survey results is evaluated within the range of 0-200, indicating an optimistic outlook when the index is above 100, and a pessimistic outlook when it is below.

Last year, the highest consumer confidence index value was seen in May with 72.8, while it was down in the last five months of 2017 and stood at 65.1 in December.

All sub-indices, except probability of saving index, saw a monthly decline in October.

The index for consumer expectations for a better general economic situation in the coming 12 months this October fell to 72.8, down from 74.6 in September.

The number of people who expect a worse financial situation of household in the next 12-month period rose month-on-month in October.

"The financial situation expectation of household index in the next 12 months period which was 76.7 in September decreased by 4.1 percent and became 73.5 in October," it said.

It noted that the number of people unemployed expectation index also decreased 5.4 percent from the last month, standing at 63.6 in October, meaning fewer people expected a fall in unemployment.

Consumers' tendencies to save money for the next 12 month-period fell in October to reach an 19.2 index value, up 2.3 percent from September.

Turkey's statistical authority will release the next survey results on Nov. 22.