NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Emerging for its postwar slump, consumer confidence advanced last week for the first time in more than a month.

The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index, based on ratings of current economic conditions, recorded its first gain since April 30 as it inched up three points to -21, on its scale of positive-100 to negative-100, for the week ended May 25. The index had leapt 13 points in a short-lived boost during the war in Iraq before losing nine points in the first three weeks following the war's conclusion.

Separately, the Conference Board, a business research group based in New York, said its closely watched index of consumer confidence rose to 83.8 in May from 81 in April. Economists, on average, expected confidence to rise to 84.9, according to a Reuters poll.

Americans perceptions of the national economy improved this week, but still lags behind the poll's other economic gauges. Twenty-nine percent of Americans rate the nation's economy as excellent or good, up from 26 percent the prior week. The lowest level of confidence in this category, 7 percent, was set in late 1991 and early 1992.

Fifty-two percent of respondents rate their own finances as excellent or good, the same as previous week. Consumer confidence in this category reached 70 percent in August 1998 and again in January 2000.

The survey's buying gauge, which determines consumers willingness to spend, rose slightly to 37 percent, compared with 36 percent the week prior. The lowest level of confidence in this category was set at 20 percent in the fall of 1990.

Confidence is higher among better-off Americans. The index is +5 among people in higher-income households compared to -57 in the lowest. The index also remains a good deal lower in the Northeast (-34) than in other regions.

The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index represents a rolling average based on telephone interviews with a random sample of about 1,000 adults nationwide each month. This week's results are based on 1,004 interviews in the week ending May 25, 2003, and have an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.