Billions set to be spent on Christmas Eve
Published On 24 December 2007
People in the UK are set to spend billions of pounds buying last-minute gifts and supplies on Christmas Eve, according to new figures.Research carried out by Sainsbury's Bank found that Britons will blow £2.14 billion on December 24th this year, as 19 million people continue shopping to the last moment.
Some £380 million will go on credit cards, the report revealed, and £1.5 million will be spent every minute.
Some 46 per cent of adults planned to make some Christmas purchases on Christmas eve, with 4.7 million people saying they will get around half their shopping done on the 24th.
"It looks like the shops are going to be busy on Christmas Eve as a lot of people intend to do a significant part of their shopping then," said Donald McLeod from Sainsbury's Bank.
"Our research would indicate that the overall spend in the Christmas Eve rush is going to be considerably up on last year's."
A recent report from Apacs forecast that just over 64 per cent of seasonal spending would be on credit and debit cards.
