Turkey's economic confidence up in February

Confidence in the Turkish economy increased on a monthly basis to 97.5 in February, the country's statistical authority announced on Thursday.

The economic confidence index rose by 0.5% compared with the last month in February from 97.1 points in January, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a report.

"This increase in economic confidence index stemmed from the increases in real sector (manufacturing industry) and services confidence indices," it said.

The services and real sector confidence indices were up by 3.4% and 0.3%, respectively, month-on-month in February.

Confidence indices for construction, consumer and retail trade dropped by 5.7%, 2.7% and 2%, respectively, in the month.

The economic confidence index surveys consumers' and producers' evaluations, expectations and tendencies about the general economic situation.