Turkey's consumer confidence index up 3rd straight month in March
People shop at a local street market in Istanbul, Turkey, March 22, 2021. (Getty Images)


Turkey’s consumer confidence index rose for the third month in a row in March, according to Turkey's statistical authority data released Wednesday.

The index rose 2.5% month-on-month to 86.7 in March, according to data prepared in cooperation by TurkStat and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) by measuring consumer tendencies.

In the last two months, the index climbed 4% and 1.5%, respectively after remaining stable in December 2020. Last year, the index value hovered between 78.1 and 82.7.

All sub-indexes contributed positively to the improvement in March's reading, with all having increased.

The financial situation expectation of the household index saw the largest rise of 4% to 87.9 in the same period, suggesting that more people were expecting a better financial situation in the year ahead.

The general economic situation expectation index rose 2.5% on a monthly basis to 94.1 in March.

Sub-indexes of the financial situation of the household index at present and the assessment on spending money on durable goods increased 1.4% and 2%, respectively.

In Turkey, consumers' assessments and expectations in nearly 20 economic and financial categories are measured in monthly tendency surveys.

The consumer confidence index is calculated from these survey results and is evaluated within a range of 0-200, indicating an optimistic outlook when the index is above 100, and a pessimistic one when it is below.