Turkey's economic sentiment dives on political uncertainty

Turkstat reported confidence indices for February, data showed headline economic sentiment declined sharply from 83.9 to 71.5, mainly on the weakness of consumer sentiment, but weakness was also evident in the services sector.

Declining confidence on deteriorating geo-political conditions around Turkey weighing on sentiment. The Turkish economy was enjoying good momentum during H2 2015, but the PMI has now dropped back to near 50, and Q1 growth prospects have turned dimmer because of uncertainty.

"We argue that CBT policy is likely to turn markedly dovish over the coming quarter. We see USD-TRY at 3.15 by mid-2016." said Commerzbank in a report to clients.