Turkish consumer confidence index improves in March

Turkish consumer confidence in the country's economy improved this month despite coronavirus fears, national statistical body data revealed Monday.

The consumer confidence index rose to 58.2 points in March, from 57.3 in the previous month, a 1.7% month-on-month increase, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The index value is calculated through cooperation between TurkStat and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) by measuring consumer tendencies.

The number of people unemployed expectation index climbed 7.2%, hitting 57.6 in March, indicating that more people were expected to lose their jobs.

The number of people expecting a better financial situation for their household in the next 12-month period rose 2.3% on a monthly basis to 78.6 in March.

Last month's general economic situation expectation index of 75.9 slipped 0.5% this month to 75.6.

The probability of saving index – showing consumers' tendency to save money over the next 12 month-period – fell the most with a 5.8% decrease from February to 21.2 this month.

Last year, the index value ranged between 63.5 and 55.3 – the highest being in April and the lowest in May.

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

The consumer confidence index calculated from the survey results 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.