The Turkish central bank data showed that the confidence of companies operating in the manufacturing sector in Turkey reached its lowest level since 2009, after dropping 6.8 points to 89.6 points in September, boosting expectations of a sharp economic slowdown.
The confidence index reached 96.4 points in August, the last time it fell from 90 points in April 2009.
Annual economic growth slowed to 5.2 percent in the second quarter, and is likely to fall in the second half in light of Turkey’s currency crisis and the lira has lost 40 percent of its value against the dollar since the beginning of this year.
Separate data from the central bank showed that the utilization rate of production capacity in the manufacturing sector fell to a two-and-a-half year low during the same period, down to 76.2 percent in September from 77.8 percent in August.
This rate is a measure of the size of the utilization of the production capacity of the economy, according to Reuters.
Data last week showed a slowdown in consumer confidence to a three-year low.
