According to the first month of the year report on the Ready Concrete Index announced by the Turkish Ready Mixed Concrete Association (THBB) every month, the slowdown in the Activity Index, which started in November, continued on the negative side, while the upward trend in December reversed again in January. Although all indices have been below the threshold value for the last 3 months, the report noted that only the Activity Index pushed the threshold value. It was noted that although both expectation and confidence indices showed a limited increase in January, they continued to remain on the negative side.
Turkish Ready Mixed Concrete Association (THBB) Chairman Yavuz Işık pointed out that a serious increase in the Activity Index should not be expected in the first quarter of 2024.
Making evaluations about the Turkish economy and the construction sector, THBB President Yavuz Işık said, “According to housing sales figures, Turkey seems to have closed the year 2023 with sales figures close to those of 8 years ago. Turkey, which exceeded the annual housing sales figure of 1 million 289 thousand in 2015, remained at 1 million 225 thousand last year. The .5% contraction in total sales exceeded 36% in mortgage sales. Undoubtedly, the biggest share in this contraction in both first-hand and second-hand sales is the problem experienced by the consumer in accessing finance. "It is predicted that there will be a revival in the sector after the banking sector eases access to housing loans in parallel with the interest rate cuts expected from the second half of 2024." he said.
