Turkey's Economic Confidence Index Tumbles Towards 2008 Crisis Level - Stats

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Turkey's economic confidence index has taken a nosedive to its lowest level in nearly 10 years, the Turkish Statistical Institute revealed on Thursday.

"Economic confidence index decreased by 15.4% compared to previous month decreasing from 83.9 to 71 in September. This decrease in economic confidence index stemmed from the decreases in consumer, real sector, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices," the institute said in a release published on its official website.

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This has marked the most significant decrease in the country's economic confidence since the 2008 financial crisis, when the index was as low as 55 in November, according to the institute's data.

The statistics revealed that the construction confidence index suffered the most significant losses, plummeting by 16.7 percent compared to August.

The Turkish economy has been struggling due to the depreciating national currency, lira, which has fallen by nearly 40 percent against the US dollar since the beginning of the year amid the deterioration in the relations between Ankara and Washington. The situation significantly worsened in August, when US President Donald Trump authorized the doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Turkey up to 50 and 20 percent respectively.