Turkish service, retail sector confidence up in February

The seasonally adjusted confidence index for services rose to 93.50 in March, up 4.8 percent from 89.24 in February, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). This increase in the services confidence index stemmed from the increased number of managers evaluating the "business situation" as it improved and "demand-turnover" as it increased over the past three months. An increase in "demand-turnover" over the next three months is also expected.

The seasonally adjusted retail trade confidence index increased 4.1 percent to 110.51 in March. This increase resulted from the increased number of managers who are evaluating improvements in "business activity-sales" over the past three months and anticipate improvement in "business activity-sales" over the next three months. In the retail trade sector, while the indices of both the business activity-sales and business activity-sales expectation increased 8.6 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, the current volume of stock decreased 0.4 percent compared to the previous month.

The seasonally adjusted confidence index for construction dropped to 81.43 in March, reflecting a 1.7 percent reduction from 82.82 in February. The decline in the construction confidence index stemmed from a decreased number of managers who evaluated the "current overall order books" as above seasonal norms, with an increase in "total employment" expected over the next three months.