Turkish economic confidence hits 17-month high

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economic confidence index advanced to a 17-month high in December, according to official data on Monday.

The figure hit 93.8 this month, while it was 95.1 in July last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.

Confidence in Turkey's economy climbed 2.6% month-on-month in December, TurkStat said.

The rise was driven by improvements in the construction, real sector, services and retail trade confidence indices.

The sub-index for construction showed the best performance with surging 7.9% on a monthly basis.

It was followed by the real sector and services confidence indices with 2.6% and 2%, respectively.

Retail trade confidence index also rose 1.4% during the same period.

Consumer confidence index was the sole one which saw a deterioration this month, slipping 1.9% from last month.

"The economic confidence index is a composite index that encapsulates consumers' and producers' evaluations, expectations, and tendencies about the general economic situation," said the TurkStat statement.

The institute underlined that a total of 20 sub-indices are used in the calculation, with data collected in the first two weeks of each month.

A value above 100 shows an optimistic outlook for the general economic situation, while a value below 100, a pessimistic one.