The real sector confidence index in Türkiye maintained an upward trend in April and reached its highest level in nine months, official data showed Wednesday.
The RSCI gauge increased by 1.7 points from the previous month to reach 106.1 in April, the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) said.
The seasonally adjusted real sector confidence index remained unchanged at 103.5 compared to the previous month, the data showed.
A value above 100 indicates an optimistic outlook on economic activities; below that figure indicates a pessimistic outlook.
The survey that constitutes the index showed that evaluations related to fixed capital investment spending, production volume in the next three months, general outlook and current total order quantity had a positive impact on the gauge.
On the other hand, evaluations regarding the total order quantity in the last three months, total employment in the next three months, current finished goods inventory and export order quantity in the next three months had a negative impact.
The bank said the last three-month evaluations showed that the trend in favor of those reporting an increase in production volume strengthened compared to the previous month. The trend in favor of those reporting a decrease in domestic market order quantity weakened, it added.
Furthermore, the trend in favor of those reporting a decrease in export order quantity turned in favor of those reporting an increase.
Capacity utilization rate slightly up
Separate data from the central bank showed the manufacturing industry capacity utilization rate increased by 0.5 percentage points from the previous month to reach 76.7% in April.
Data evaluated based on responses to a business tendency survey by 1,727 establishments operating in the manufacturing industry indicated that the seasonally adjusted capacity utilization rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 77%.
The highest utilization in the month was 77% for intermediate goods. The lowest rate was 72.6% for non-durable consumer goods.
Broken down by sector, the highest capacity usage was in the manufacture of paper products at 85.6%, while the lowest, 62.9%, was in leather products.