The consumer confidence index in Turkey posted an increase in March, official data showed Wednesday.

From 71.2 points in February, the consumer confidence index rose to 72.5 this month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The index is a vital gauge of the economy’s overall public status, indicating people’s sentiments on financial standing and the general economic situation, along with expenditure and saving tendencies.

Among all subindices, the financial situation of households at present was the only to register a drop, slipping by 1.5% to 54.4 points.

The index for assessment on spending money on durable goods over the next 12 months went up by 4.4% to 93.3.

The financial situation expectation of households over the next 12 months climbed by 2.3% to 69.9 points, while the general economic situation expectation index increased by 1.2% to 72.6.

The consumer confidence index is calculated from survey results and 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.