Turkey: Consumer confidence index down in Aug

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's consumer confidence index decreased on a monthly basis to 59.6 in August, according to the country's statistical authority on Friday.

The index, jointly calculated by TurkStat and the Central Bank through the measurement of consumer tendencies, went down 2.2% from last month.

All sub-indices, except for the reading on the probability of saving index, deteriorated this month, the TurkStat data showed.

The financial situation expectation of households index saw the steepest monthly fall with 3.5%, suggesting that fewer people were expecting a better financial situation in the coming year.

The index for consumer expectations for a better general economic situation in the coming 12 months decreased by 3.3% during the same period.

The number of people unemployed expectation index slipped 2.5% from July to August as people were more pessimistic about finding jobs.

However, the probability of saving index, tracking consumers' tendencies to save money over the next 12 months, rose 8.8% compared to the previous month.

Consumer assessments and expectations in nearly 20 economic and financial categories are measured in monthly tendency surveys.

The consumer confidence index, calculated from survey results, is evaluated within the range of 0-200, indicating optimism when the index is above 100 and pessimism when below.