The BCC's chief economist David Kern said: "There has been an improvement but we have to qualify that by saying most of our balances are still negative and pointing to decline".

The group still predicts further unemployment to come, estimating that 3.2 million people out of a job by mid 2010.

The Office for National Statistics made some significant changes to its UK Gross domestic product data, stating the economy had shrunk by 2.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to its earlier prediction of 1.9 percent.  Sam Gooch