Accountants warn against festive overspending
Accountants - 15/11/2006 13:56:23
It is expected that Christmas spending could reach a record high with a total of £16.9 billion being spent on gifts, according to leading accountants.
Accountants Deloitte estimate that each person will spend an average of £378 on gifts this year – over a fifth more than last Christmas. In particular, consumers are opting to buy each other more high-value presents including jewellery and electrical goods such as mp3 players, rather than cheaper items such as books and DVDs.
Figures suggest that those shoppers aged between 25 to 34 years are planning to spend the most this year, each buying gifts worth an average of £806 – around 16 per cent more than last year's present buying budget.
However, there will need to be some cutbacks this Christmas in order to finance the extra gifts, with some consumers planning to reduce their social expenses this December by around 16 per cent.
Tarlok Teji, UK head of retail at accountants Deloitte said: "Gift retailers can look forward to a bumper year, but the pullback in spending on socialising may not bode well for the leisure industry, as hotels, pubs and restaurants are expected to be hardest hit.
"Expenditure this year on food and drink will be flat and grocery retailers may need to pull out all the stops to attract more customers."
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