Consumer confidence has risen for the first time since February, making it less likely that the country will suffer a double-dip recession, a new study has found.

The GfK NOP Consumer Confidence Index increased by four points in August to minus 18, the first time it has done so since the beginning of the year.

The results show that people’s confidence in their own finances grew during the past 12 months along with their confidence about the general economy.

This, in turn, has increased their confidence both for personal finances and the economy as a whole over the next 12 months.

"Overall consumer confidence has been in constant decline for the last five months and a further fall would have made a double-dip recession seem a very real prospect,” said Nick Moon, managing director of GfK NOP Social Research.

“The government will undoubtedly read these figures with a great deal of relief.”

However, he warned that the rise in confidence in the economy’s future prospects is not quite as good as it looks.

“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.”