ISTANBUL

The capacity utilization rate for the Turkish manufacturing industry posted a slight decline of 0.2 percentage points to 77% in April versus March, official figures from the Central Bank showed on Wednesday.

Official Central Bank figures on Wednesday said the utilization in the month was 77% for intermediate goods, as the highest, and the lowest rate was 72.6% for non-durable consumer goods.

Broken down by sector, the highest capacity usage was in the manufacture of paper products at 85.6%, while the lowest, 62.9%, was in leather products.

Capacity utilization rate figures are based on responses to a business tendency survey of local units operating in the manufacturing industry.

The Turkish Central Bank said 1,727 companies responded to the survey this month, and the data does not reflect the bank's views or predictions.