UPDATE - Turkish consumer confidence index down in July

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Confidence of Turkish consumers in the economy fell by 2% in July, Turkey's statistical authority said on Tuesday.

On a monthly basis, the index was valued at 56.5 in July, down over one point versus the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced.

In June, the consumer confidence index rose 4.3% to 57.6 from 55.3 in May.

The index value is jointly calculated by TurkStat and the Central Bank of Turkey through measurement of consumer tendencies.

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

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 July, the index for general economic situation expectations decreased to 73.4, from 73.9 in June.

The financial situation expectation of household index dropped by 1.7% to stand at 77 in June, versus the previous month.

The institute said: "The probability of saving index which was 22 in June decreased by 9% and became 20 in July."

The number of people unemployed expectation index also fell by 1.3% to stand at 55.6 month-on-month in July.

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

The country's statistical authority will release the next survey results on Aug. 22.