Turkish economic confidence hits 5-year peak

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economic confidence index climbed to its highest level since July 2012, according to official data released on Tuesday.

The economic confidence index increased by 2.5 percent to 106 points in August, up from 103.4 points in July, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a report.

TurkStat noted that monthly hikes in real, services, retail trade and construction sector confidence indexes maintained the rise in economic confidence.

Among all indexes, the construction confidence index rose the most, by 3.3 percent, to 88.3 points.

The real sector confidence index climbed to 110.2 points with a 2.3 percent month-on-month increase, followed by services (105.4 points) and retail trade (108.5 points) sectors with increases of 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

In August, only the consumer confidence index declined, down 0.3 percent to 71.1 points.

According to the TurkStat definition, the index indicates an optimistic outlook regarding the general economic situation when it is above 100. It indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.