Shoppers take a more positive view of the economy and future prospects, with the overall confidence level reporting its first increase since February.
The GfK NOP Consumer Confidence jumped by four points this month to -18. It is the first time since February that the overall confidence level has increased.

According to the survey, August saw increases for confidence in shoppers' personal finance situation over the past year, as well as in the coming 12 months, with index increases of three points to -12 and -3 respectively.

Consumers were also found to have more confidence in the state of the UK economy and how it had changed over the past 12 months, up five points to -43. Looking to the general economic situation in coming year, the confidence index was up an impressive 11 points to -14 - just five points lower than the figure recorded in August 2009.

The major purchase index was the only measure to report a drop this month, falling four points to -20, with consumers still dubious about making major purchases such as furniture or electrical goods.

GfK NOP md of social research Nick Moon said; "Overall consumer confidence has been in constant decline fur the last five months and a further fall would have made a double-dip recession seem a very real prospect. The government will undoubtedly read these figures with a great deal of relief.

"The single biggest improvement has been in confidence in the economy over the next 12 months and this looks particularly encouraging on first sight. However, this gain merely reverses a similarly large drop in July and in reality confidence in the economy's future prospects remains below its June level and similar to May 2009 when we were still in the grips of a recession."