Turkey: Sectoral confidence down in February

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Confidence in Turkey's services, retail trade, and construction sectors dropped in February compared to the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Thursday.

The services sector index fell 1.3 percent to 100.7 in the month, from 102 in January. According to TurkStat, this resulted from a smaller number of managers over the past three months seeing the business situation as positive and demand/turnover as rising.

The retail trade confidence index was down 1.5 percent month-on-month to reach 104.7 in February, from 106.2 in the previous month. The fall came from a decreased number of managers expecting an improvement in business activity/sales over the next three months, TurkStat said.

The construction sector confidence index also fell 3.7 percent to 83.8 points in February from 87 in January. This decrease "stemmed from the decreased number of managers evaluating 'current overall order books' as above normal for the season," TurkStat said.

Sectoral confidence indices range from 0 to 200, indicating an optimistic outlook when above 100, but a pessimistic outlook when below 100, according to TurkStat.

Meanwhile, consumer confidence in the Turkish economy also inched down 0.1 percent to 72.25 in February, TurkStat reported Tuesday.

TurkStat is due to announce Turkey’s economic confidence index on Feb. 27.