ANKARA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish consumers' confidence in the economy went up in March, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Thursday.

The data released by TurkStat showed that the consumer confidence index reached 59.4 this month, up by 2.7 percent from February.

The general economic situation expectation index soared by 4.9 percent, while the household expectation index climbed 4 percent, which both helped lift the consumer confidence.

The index value, calculated through measurement of consumer tendencies, indicates an optimistic outlook when it is above 100, while it indicates a pessimistic outlook when it is below 100.

In 2018, the index value hovered between 72.7 and 57.6 -- the highest being in July and the lowest in October.