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December 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Turkey’s retail sales endure worst growth on record
Akin Nazli in Belgrade
Turkey's calendar-adjusted retail sales volume index declined by 7.5% y/y in October, marking the biggest annual contraction since the data set was first compiled in 2010, national statistics office TUIK reported on December 18.
The previous contraction, of 3.4% in September, was the first seen since February 2017 and it was also recorded as the most extensive until the October data arrived.
October’s non-food sales sank by 12.1% y/y while the month’s automotive fuel sales declined by 7.6% y/y. Food, drinks and tobacco sales, on the other hand, grew 1.6% y/y.
Average monthly annual retail sales growth declined to 0.6% in Q3 from 5.9% in Q2 and 8.9% in Q1 2018, according to TUIK’s retail sales data.
Turkey managed a gain of 4% m/m to 59.6 in its consumer sentiment index in November,
an improvement on the 57.3 reading recorded in October, which was registered as lowest level seen since December 2008, data released by TUIK showed on November 22.
The retail confidence index moved up by 4.3% m/m to 90.7 from October’s record low level of 87, TUIK said on November 26.
“Turkey's credit crunch — which began with
the BoP [balance of payments] sudden stop on Aug. 13 — has been morphing from a complete shutdown in FX-denominated lending to a credit crunch now in TRY-denominated new lending, with contraction in TRY-denominated lending worse in Q4 than Q3,” Robin Brooks of the International Institute of Finance (IIF) said on December 17 in a tweet.
“Turkey seems to be undergoing a much harder landing than I think many
people expected... Looking at the data