CONSUMER confidence edged up this month amid signs of an end to the gloom over the wider economy and people’s own finances.

The GfK UK Consumer Confidence Index showed an improvement by five points to a score of minus 22 – strengthening hopes of a much-needed boost in spending for the economy.

It builds on an upward trend for the index, which has risen from minus 29 at the start of the year.

Nick Moon of researchers GfK, said: “There are now some real signs that consumers, while hardly confident, are moving out of the feeling of despondency that the country has been mired in for the last year or so.”

But he stressed that the index remains lower than it was for the whole of 2010 and well off pre-recession levels.