ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE INDEX FALLS by 8.8 PTS.

Economic confidence index indicates an optimistic outlook about the general economic condition when the index is above 100, on contrary it indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.

Economic confidence index stood at 97.2 level, when it was first calculated in January 2014. The index, fell by 0.4 percent on monthly basis, from 88.8 in December.

Decrease on monthly basis in economic confidence index stemmed from 0.1 percent fall in consumer, 1.5 percent fall in manufacturing industry, , 2.7 percent fall in retail trade and 1.0 percent fall in construction confidence indices, services sector confidence index rose by 2.1 percent.

Turkstat launched the economic confidence index as a monthly composite index, encapsulating the evaluations, expectations and tendencies of both consumers and producers on general economic situation, starting from January 2015.

"Economic confidence index is weighted aggregation of confidence indicators of consumers and of the seasonally adjusted manufacturing industry, services, retail trade and construction sectors" Turkstat said in the statement on the introduction of the new data.

Consumer confidence index as one of the composing indicators of economic confidence index is calculated from Consumer Tendency Survey results, which is conducted by the cooperation of Turkstat and Central Bank of Turkey.

Manufacturing industry confidence index is calculated by Central Bank of Turkey and services, retail trade and construction confidence indices are calculated by Turkstat.