ISTANBUL: Business confidence among Turkish manufacturers improved in February, but sentiment remained pessimistic, with construction sector confidence hitting an eight-year low, official data showed on Friday.
Some of Turkey's economic indicators have shown signs of a partial recovery since declining sharply in the wake of a currency crisis, which saw the lira lose nearly 30 percent of its value against the dollar last year.
The crisis dealt a blow to many companies, notably in the construction and energy sectors, and sparked concerns over the state of the banking sector.
Turkey's manufacturing confidence index rose to 97.2 points in February from 93 in January, data from the central bank showed. The index denotes pessimism when below a score of 100.
Economic growth under President Tayyip Erdogan has been driven in part by the construction sector, which has relied on cheap credit. The sector has taken a hit after last year's crisis, with the sector contracting some 5.3 percent in the third quarter of last year.
In February, confidence in the construction sector stood at 51.8 points, its lowest since January 2011, separate data from the Turkish Statistics Institute showed on Friday.
Capacity utilisation, which is an indicator of how much of the economy's potential output is being used, fell in February to its lowest since March 2015, standing at 74 percent, data from the central bank also showed.
Comments
Comments are closed.