TEPE which has been standing in the negatives since January had a value of -6.7 in June 2012.

ANKARA - Following the improvement in May, the TEPAV Retail Confidence Index headed downwards, demonstrating a month-on-month drop by 3.3 points and a year-on-year drop by 10.1 points.

The balance value of the expectations for the next three months stood at 7.7 in June. 38.3 percent of TEPE survey participants expect an improvement in their business activities in the next three months while 40.3 percent expect a deterioration. This implies a 10.1 point decrease compared to June 2011 and a 0.5 point decrease compared to May 2012.

In June 2012, 22.9 percent of the participants declared a year-on-year improvement in business activities whereas 52.3 percent declared deterioration. Volume of business activities, therefore decreased by 23 points compared to June 2011 and by 7.5 points compared to May 2012.

The EU-27 Retail Confidence Index stood at -10.3 in June 2012, implying a month-on-month increase by 4.3 points and a year-on-year decrease by 7.9 points.

Comparing the retail confidence indices for the EU-27 countries and Turkey in June 2012, year-on-year drops were observed in all EU countries excluding United Kingdom, Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria. The sharpest drops were experienced by Italy, Slovakia, Holland, Estonia, and Germany. Eurozone countries performed worse than the overall EU region compared to both June 2011 and May 2012.

Electrical appliances, radio and televisions sector was the best performer in June 2012, followed by furniture, lighting and household articles sector. All sub-sectors but the mentioned two experienced year-on-year drops in performance. The declines were lower than the average in food, beverages, and tobacco products sector, and non-specialized stores sector and higher than the average in the “others” sector (gas station, pharmacy, perfumery, hardware, glassware, stationery etc.) and textiles, ready-made clothing and footwear sector. The sharpest year-on-year drop was in motor vehicles sector which is on decline since the beginning of 2012.

Question-based assessment of TEPE survey results reveal that the level of business activities compared to the last three months and the last year and expectations on sales prices in the next three months and on the number of stores next year deteriorated both year-on-year and month-on-month. Expectations for the orders placed with suppliers, sales and employment in the next three months remained constant compared to May 2012 but decreased compared to June 2011. The current volume of inventories also declined.