US consumers believe the economic slump has almost bottomed, with more people expecting a recovery within the next year than six months ago, according to new data from Nielsen, the market research group that tracks consumer spending.

“We're no longer in this freefall that we were in the fourth quarter of 2008,” said James Russo, vice-president of global consumer insights at Nielsen. “We're starting to see the slight emergence of optimism . . . the end is coming.”

Although global consumer confidence remains at record lows, the rate of decline in the US has slowed, with Nielsen's index showing a drop of just two points in the past six months. This is in line with other indices, such as the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment, which showed a slight improvement in March.