UPDATE - Turkish consumer confidence falls in February

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish consumers' confidence in the economy fell in February, the country's statistical authority announced Wednesday.

On a monthly basis, the consumer confidence index went down 0.7 percent to stand at 57.8 this month.

The index value is jointly calculated by TurkStat and the Central Bank by measuring consumer tendencies.

Last month, the figure was 58.2, down from 0.9 percent from December's 58.7.

In 2018, the index value hovered between 72.7 and 57.6 -- the highest in July and the lowest in October.

Consumers’ assessments and expectations for the next 12 months are measured in monthly tendency surveys on nearly 20 economic and financial criteria.

The index is calculated from the survey results on a range of 0-200, with above 100 indicating an optimistic outlook, and below 100 a pessimistic outlook.

In February, the index for consumers' expectations of a better general economic situation fell to 75, versus last month's 76.5.

"The financial situation expectation of household index, which was 77.1 in January, fell 2.4 percent to 75.2 in February," TurkStat said.

The instituted said the number of people unemployed expectation index also decreased 3.1 percent to stand at 59 this month.

Consumers' tendency to save money for the next 12 month-period climbed 20.2 percent to 22 in February, up from 18.3 in January.

The country's statistical authority will release the next survey results on March 21.