Turkish consumer confidence slips in February

ANKARA

Turkey’s consumer confidence index slipped 7 percent in February, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) reported on Friday.

The index fell to 66.64 points in February, down 4.98 points, or seven percent, from January.

New data showed that a downward trend in consumer confidence which started in December continues.

The worst deterioration among sub-indices was in the probability-of-saving index, suggesting less and less people expect to save money. The sub-index dipped 16.1 percent to 21.05 points.

Worries about employment were another negative element in consumer confidence as the number-of-people-unemployed expectation index, a gauge of the health of labor market, was down 10.1 percent to 66.17 points.

General economic confidence also dropped by 5.9 percent in February, the report said.

The financial-situation-expectation index was the least negatively affected according to TUIK, as it fell 3.1 percent – a relatively positive reading compared to steep declines in other sub-indices.