ANKARA: The Turkish economic confidence index fell 15.4 percent month-on-month to 74.85 in March, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) showed on Monday.
The decrease stemmed from falls in consumer, manufacturing industry, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices, TurkStat said. The index indicates an optimistic outlook about the general economic situation when the index is above 100 and indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.
The figures reflect Turkish citizens’ loss of confidence in economy. Confidence indexes are also viewed as indicators of growth. Turkey’s growth, expected to be below 4 percent, has drawn an urgent call from the business world and government experts in economy for measures to be taken.
Meanwhile, the Turkish banking sector’s net profit was TL 3.46 billion ($1.33 billion) in the first two months of the year, the banking watchdog BDDK said on Monday. The sector’s loans rose to TL 1.29 trillion in February from TL 1.24 trillion at the end of last year, the data showed. Comparative figures were not immediately available. The sector’s total profit was TL 24.66 billion in 2014.
Hisarcıklıoğlu said that only 21 of the 100 most rapidly growing companies in Turkey are software and IT companies, compared with 60 in the United States.
