According to the monthly sectoral confidence survey released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the confidence index* for the construction sector in Turkey, which stood at 73.3 points in December last year, increased by 18.6 percent month on month in January, to 86.9 points. The confidence index for the Turkish construction sector rose for the first times in January on month-on-month basis, after nine successive months of strong month-on-month decreases recorded in the April-December period last year.

According to the indices based on individual questions asked of Turkish construction sector enterprise executives who own private businesses with 10 or more employees, in January this year the confidence index for construction activities recorded in the latest three months, which stood at 89.6 points in December, decreased by 1.7 percent to 88.1 points.

In January, the current overall order books sub-index increased by 8.5 percent to 73.8 points, while the sub-index for total employment expectations over the next three months increased by 27.2 percent to 100.0 points, both compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, in January last year, executives' expectations for sales prices in the next three months by increased 14.1 percent month on month to 108.2 points.

* Sectoral confidence index values range between zero and 200. When the index is above 100 it indicates an optimistic outlook about the current and the future period of the sector, when it is below 100 it points to a pessimistic outlook.