Turkish economic confidence hits 5-year high

Turkey's economic confidence index climbed to its highest level since July 2012, according to official data released on Tuesday.

The economic confidence index increased by 2.5 percent to 106 points in August, up from 103.4 points in July, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported.

TurkStat noted that monthly hikes in real estate, services, retail trade and the construction sector confidence indexes underpinned the rise in economic confidence.

Among all TurkSat's indices, the construction confidence index rose the most, by 3.3 percent, to 88.3 points.

The real estate sector confidence index climbed to 110.2 points, on a 2.3 percent month-on-month increase, followed by services (105.4 points) and retail trade (108.5 points) sectors with increases of 1.6 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

In August, only the consumer confidence index fell, down 0.3 percent to 71.1 points.

According to the TurkStat's methodology, an index indicates an optimistic outlook regarding the general economic situation when it is above 100. It indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.

Markets & lira strengthening

Tuesday's data came as Turkey's stocks and the lira are also coming back from lows visited in the wake of the July 2016 coup attempt.

The benchmark index hit an all-time high on Monday during intraday trading, peaking at 110,530.75 points. The BIST 100 closed up 584.84 points, or 0.53 percent, at 110,339.99 points, a historic high close.

Last Friday, the lira hit an eight-month high against the dollar. On Tuesday at 9:30 am (0630GMT), the lira was trading at 3.45 to the US dollar, down slightly from its close Monday at 3.4490 to the dollar.