US consumers increasingly 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.”