Istanbul, May 27 () - Turkish economic confidence index increased by 1.5 percent to 80.16 in May, second upwards move after the big plunge in the March, according the data released by Turkstat on Tuesday. The index dived by 15.4 percent in March to 74.85, the lowest level in its 15-month history.

This increase in economic confidence index stemmed from the increases in real sector (manufacturing industry), services, retail trade and construction confidence indices.

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

Real sector confidence index rose by 1.2 percent, services confidence index rose by 0.1 percent, retail trade confidence index increased by 1.4 percent and construction confidence index rose by by 2.9 percent in May compared to the previous month, while consumer confidence index fell by 1.6 percent over the same period.

Economic confidence index is a composite index that encapsulates consumers’ and producers’ evaluations, expectations and tendencies about general economic situation.

The index is combined by means of a weighted aggregation of normalized sub-indices of consumer confidence, seasonally adjusted real sector, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices.

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 the Republic of Turkey.

Real sector confidence index is calculated by Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and services, retail trade and construction confidence indices are calculated by TurkStat.