Turkey's economic confidence index slips by 1.6 pct

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The confidence in Turkey's economy was lower month-on-month in June, according to official data released on Thursday.

"Economic confidence index decreased by 1.6% compared to the previous month falling from 100.5 to 98.9 in June," the Turkish Statistical Institute said in a report.

The month-on-month fall was driven by deteriorations in consumer, services and retail trade confidence indices, according to the report.

Sub-indices for real sector and construction showed improvements, however, compared to May, rising 3.8 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

"Real sector confidence index increased to 108.8 and construction confidence index increased to 86.7 in June," TurkStat said.

TurkStat recalled that the consumer confidence index was also down in June, going down 3.8 percent as reported last week. Services and retail trade confidence indices were also down, falling 3.1 and 2.1 percent, respectively, it said.

"Consumer confidence index decreased to 70, whereas services confidence index was down to 98.8 and retail trade confidence index fell to 100.7 in June," it added.

The consumer confidence index is seen as a vital gauge of the overall health of the economy, indicating people's sentiments about spending their money, which in turn gives clues about economic vitality.