Consumer confidence has increased for the first time since February, according to one report, raising hopes that High Street spending could help the UK avoid a ‘double-dip’ recession.

Market research firm GfK NOP said its consumer confidence barometer – which analyses retail patterns to produce an index of shoppers’ optimism – increased by four points in August to minus 18, the first increase since the second month of the year.

The report takes in consumers’ feelings about the economy now and in the next year, based on their feelings about job security, personal debts and the economy in general.

Some analysts have feared that the UK could fall back into recession in the coming year, particularly with large-scale cuts in the public sector on the horizon but Nick Moon, managing director of GfK NOP, said the government would read the figures with ‘a great deal of relief’, adding that ‘a further fall would have made a double-dip recession seem a very real prospect’.

But despite the encouraging index figure, there were signs that shoppers are shying away from big-ticket items.
GfK NOP’s ‘major purchase Index’ was the only measure examined that fell, down four points to minus 20.