Some modest chinks of light emerged on the consumer side of the economy today amid signs the slump in homebuying activity and High Street sales may be easing.

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed the number of mortgage loans approved to buy homes in February was steady on the previous month's figure, stemming the previous rate of decline.

On the year, the rate of lending is still down massively - by a third - with the 43,870 loans approved little changed from the 43,732 of January.

The figures appeared all the more optimistic in the light of moves by many lenders to rein in their lending, or tighten up their criteria.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the typical loan for first-time buyers was for 88% of the property's value, compared with 90% in December. Across all homebuyers, the loan-to-value ratio was down from 73% to 70%.

Meanwhile, the CBI reported retailers were not as pessimistic as many analysts have been expecting. A survey by the employers' organisation found that sales volumes, although still weak, had improved in March, albeit at a sluggish rate.

Gavyn Davies, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist who now chairs Fulcrum Asset Management, predicted the UK would suffer "a bigger dent to activity than in 2001-2 because of a shrinking in the financial sector, but not a prolonged recession".

Davies, who famously resigned as chairman of the BBC after the Hutton Report, was also relatively bullish about the US economy, which he declared was "now already in recession" but would be back in growth mode by the end of the year.