Turkey: Economic confidence rises in March

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economic confidence went up in March, rising 3.1 percent month-on-month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Thursday.

The economic confidence index climbed to 81.9 this month, up from 79.4 in February, TurkStat said in a statement.

The month-on-month rise was driven by improvements in the consumer, real sector, services, and construction confidence indices.

The construction confidence index saw a surge of 4.4 percent. The consumer, services and real sector confidence indices followed with 2.9, 2.6 and 2.5 percent increases, respectively.

However, the retail trade confidence index dropped slightly, dipping 0.1 percent compared to last month.