Olympic cheer lifts consumer morale

LONDON (Reuters) - Falling petrol prices, summer holidays and Britain's best Olympic medal tally in a century combined to give an unexpected lift to consumer morale in August, a survey showed on Friday.

The figures will provide a glimmer of hope to Prime Minister Gordon Brown who plans to revive his flagging popularity with a package of economic measures next month.

The GfK NOP consumer confidence index rose three points to -36 this month from -39 in July, a level that had been the lowest since the survey began in 1974.

It was the first rise since January and confounded market expectations for a reading of -41, but still left the index 32 points lower than at the same point last year.

"We have seen a small improvement in consumer confidence in August, but this should not be seen as a turnaround in core sentiment," said Rachael Joy of GfK. "The improvement could be down to a number of recent factors, which are mostly of short-term influence."

In particular, Britain's medal success at the Olympic games in China appeared to be a powerful tonic. Respondents in the second half of the month gave a score that was typically three points higher than those questioned before Britain had soared to an impressive fourth in the medal table.

A breakdown by component showed Britons were less pessimistic about the outlook for their finances and the state of the economy over the next 12 months. Falling petrol prices and a supermarket price war may well have been at play.

Still, Britons were in no mood to splash out on big-ticket items. The climate for major purchases index fell one point to -38, the lowest since this question was included in the survey in 1982.

(Reporting by Christina Fincher; Editing by Gerrard Raven)