Services sector confidence index up in Turkey, other indices send mixed signals
A waiter wearing a protective face mask and face shield against the spread of the coronavirus serves coffee at a coffee shop in Istanbul, Turkey, June 1, 2020. (AP Photo)


Turkey's services and retail trade sectors posted a rise in confidence in September, while the construction sector saw a drop, the country's statistical authority reported Thursday.

Seasonally adjusted confidence indices for the services sector were up 6.4% while the retail trade and construction sector posted decreases of 1.5% and 2%, respectively, month-on-month in September, said the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

The index for services rose to 74.9 in September, up from 70.5 in August. Compared to the previous month, the subindices for the business situation and demand turnover over the past three months climbed 12.8% and 12.6%, respectively, while the demand turnover expectations for the next three months’ subindex fell 2.8%.

After dropping to 93.5 in August, the retail trade confidence index for September was 94.9.

The construction confidence index also posted a decrease to 83.3, down 2% from the previous month.

"In the construction sector, total employment expectation over the next three months sub-index decreased by 3.3% to 96.6," said TurkStat.

Some 37% of the enterprises in the manufacturing sector stated that there was no restriction on their activities during September while 63% of them said that there was at least one main factor restricting their activities.

Among the main factors limiting the activities in the construction sector, "financing problems" constituted a 40.1% share in August, while they fell to 39.3% in September. The "lack of demand" had a share of 31.5% in August and 32.8% in September, while "other factors" were 20.3% in August and fell to 17% this month.

Sectoral confidence indices calculated from monthly survey results are evaluated within a range of 0-200. These indices indicate an optimistic outlook when the value is above 100.