By Anhar Khanbhai

Despite recent news of retailing at its lowest, a new study shows that retail spending appears to be on the rebound, with a seventh consecutive month of growth.

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) Business Sales Indicator (BSI) rose by 0.7% in trend terms in February, after 0.9% gains in the previous three months.

The BSI, which tracks the value of credit and debit card transactions processed through CBA's point-of-sale terminals, recorded rises in spending in all states and territories for the fifth straight month.

Three of the 20 included sectors showed contraction during February - up from two in January.

Wholesale distributors and manufacturers reported the best result in February, followed by clothing stores, retail stores and contracted services.

The weakest sectors were hotels and motels, mail order and telephone order providers, and business services.

CBA Local Business Banking executive GM Matt Comyn said consumers were beginning to regain confidence after the economic uncertainty of 2011.

"The figures demonstrate that the recovery is gathering momentum and the willingness to spend is becoming more defined every month," he said.

"Consumers are showing resilience against the uncertainty we have been experiencing in domestic and global markets. What needs to be taken into consideration, however, is that confidence on the whole is still shaky."

CommSec chief economist Craig James said recoveries in particular sectors were a promising sign.

"When you look behind the headline figure at what is happening at a sector level, the overall picture is much more positive than what we saw over much of 2011," James said.

"The sectors where we had been hearing the most negative news were, in fact, the key beneficiaries of increased spending in February.

"The wholesale distributors and manufacturers (sector) posted positive gains, as did retail stores and clothing Stores, both of which have been doing it tough."