Turkey's consumer prices index (CPI)-based real effective exchange rate fell to 104.05 in March, according to a new calculation method of the Real Effective Exchange Rate Indices data released by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) on Monday. The nominal effective exchange rate is the weighted average value of the Turkish lira relative to the basket of the countries' currencies that have a significant share in Turkey's foreign trade. Weights are determined using bilateral trade flows. As for the real effective exchange rate, it is obtained by purifying relative price effects in the nominal effective exchange rate. The CBRT revised February data to 105.44 from 113.2 and January data to 108.25 from 117.12 levels due to method change. Additionally, the domestic producer prices index (D-PPI) fell to 103.26 from 104.99 in February and 106.74 in January, calculated by the new method. "In contrast to the old indices using 2006-2008 period trade flows for the entire series, the new indices have been calculated based on three-year trade flow averages in compliance with the methodologies of international organizations" the CBRT said in its statement on the calculation method changes. "Indices obtained by using the country weights calculated for each period have been combined by the chain-linking method." The CBRT stressed that the number of countries covered in the indices increased from 36 to 45 for the CPI-based index and from 31 to 38 for the PPI-based index. Moreover, the Unit Labor Cost-Based Real Effective Exchange Rate Index, which had not been updated since the first quarter of 2012 due to the limitations on available data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has also been recalculated using unit labor data from 18 countries published by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).