Consumer and producer confidence indices: Application in the Central Anatolian Region

Consumer and producer behavior is a subject that is evaluated and examined in terms of the future and direction of the economy. These behaviors vary according to economic, psychological and social factors. Confidence and expectations, which are among the factors in question, have significant effects on consumers' decisions and behaviors. Confidence is one of the basic elements of economic and individual relations. If an individual has confidence in the economy, they increase their spending and investments. However, if they do not have confidence and have negative expectations for the future, they reduce their spending and increase their savings. For this reason, it can be said that confidence is a leading indicator. In Turkey, confidence is published every month by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) as a result of national surveys under the names of Consumer Confidence Index, Economic Confidence Index and sectoral confidence indexes. These indexes present trends in confidence and expectation for consumption, production and many sectors. The main purpose of this study is to calculate regional confidence by creating a confidence scale at the regional level. This thesis aims to evaluate the expectations and confidence of individuals who have active business life in the private sector towards consumption, production and the general economy in light of their views and thoughts on the current economy. For this purpose, a survey was conducted on 403 individuals in the cities of Kayseri, Niğde, Nevşehir and Aksaray in the Central Anatolia Region. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that consumer, producer and economic trust tendencies were moderate. It is thought that the results obtained allow the differences in trust between sectors and cities to be seen.