Turkish economic confidence slips in September

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA (AA) - A monthly measure of economic confidence in Turkey slipped in September, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a report on Thursday.

The institute’s official economic confidence index fell 3 percent to 102.8 in September, down from 106 the previous month.

The month-on-month fall was driven by deteriorations in the construction, consumer, services, and retail trade confidence indices, the institute said.

But sub-indices for the real sector showed an improvement from August, rising 0.5 percent.

“The construction, consumer, retail trade, and services confidence indices decreased to 83.5, 68.7, 105.9, and 103.3 percent in September, respectively,” the institute added.

When above 100, the index indicates an optimistic outlook.

In August, Turkey's conomic confidence rose to its highest level in more than five years, helping the lira to strengthen against dollar.

Turkey’s annual growth rates were 6.1 percent in 2015 and 3.2 percent last year. The Turkish economy expanded beyond expectations in the first (5.2 percent) and second (5.1 percent) quarters of this year, according to TurkStat.

The government aims to hit annual economic growth of 5.5 percent by 2020 in its medium-term economic program released on Wednesday.