Monthly figures released by the Reserve Bank revealed 2 per cent increase in credit card transactions in September, indicating improvement in customer spending in the country. Spending using credit cards stood at $18.8 billion in August and rose to $19.2 billion during the reporting month.

The monthly bulletin, released by the Apex bank yesterday, showed 3.5 per cent rise in repayment on credit cards. The value of cash advances on credit and charge cards too surged marginally, reporting an increase of 0.7 per cent to $2.44 million.

Westpac Economist Doug Steel said that the consumer spending is still below expectations. But, the marginal uplift in the credit card use is enough to convince that economy is on recovery path with the rising of consumer’s confidence in last six months.

Steel added, "But it's nothing to write home about yet. There's still a lot of concern about rising unemployment and there's still a little bit of concern about the credit crisis ... but people are still telling us they are confident of better times ahead."

John Albertson, the Chief Executive of Retailers Association said that the market lacks the ‘gut feeling’ and there is a shifting trend in the market from credit cards to eftpos cards in the past year.