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IRISH CONSUMERS WILL retain their title of Europe’s biggest spenders this Christmas according to a new survey by Deloitte.
The survey predicts that the average spend per household in Ireland this festive season will be €965.80 with an average €499.60 spend on gifts.
There’ll be no expense spared on turkeys and sherry this year with households spending an average €288.30 on food and drink and a further €177.90 on socialising.
Although Irish spending figures are still considerably higher than the European average of almost €600, consumers indicated they would be spending 7.44 per cent less this year overall.
To keep within their Christmas budget this year, 44 per cent of Irish consumers said they will buy more products and gifts that are on sale and 29 per cent said they will shop more at less expensive stores.
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Despite keeping a close watch on our budgets, we remain a generous bunch at Christmas with just 16 per cent of people saying they will focus more on buying for fewer people.
Irish consumers are also more likely in 2012 to support the local economy, with 65 per cent indicating that they will buy locally made products, up from 58 per cent in 2011.
Letters to Santa
Santa will be getting a lot of requests for cash this year, especially from 18-24 year olds, though people aged 55-64 said they prefer to receive books.
The top ten most wished for adult gifts in Ireland are:
Books (46 per cent)
Cash (37 per cent)
Clothes/shoes (35 per cent)
Cosmetics/perfumes (35 per cent)
Gift vouchers (33 per cent)
CDs (31 per cent)
DVD/Blu Ray (29 per cent)
Chocolates (26 per cent)
Beauty care, massage, spa treatment (26 per cent)
Jewellery/watch (26 per cent)
Half of all spending on Christmas gifts is allocated to children, and Irish consumers were consistent with their European counterparts in this regard. When purchasing gifts for the under 12s this year, games are the favoured option by Irish consumers, followed by books; arts and crafts and action toys.
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Blinken was sent to Beijing in order to try and halt the slide in relations between the two countries . To the amazement of me and many others he appeared to pull it off . Then his boss President Biden completely wrecks everything 48 hours later . The question is did Biden do this because he isn’t Compus Mentis or was it deliberate , and part of the power struggle between different Neoliberal factions in Washington ?
@Des Hanrahan: Biden has done something similar to this before (although I can’t remember the specifics – it might have been Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia – I can’t remember now) shortly after Blinken met with a foreign government. That time it appeared to be a co-ordinated and deliberate strategy. This time I don’t know. It could be a repeat of the previous strategy, or it could be a random or solo run by Biden without consultation with Blinkin or his administration. We don’t know.
Biden and Pelosi seem determined to undo any good relations between China and US. Inept in the extreme as they know as well as anybody else that relations have to be maintained for both countries sakes
@alan: soooooo your plan is to let China take full control of the south China seas at the expense of the other 7 nations and ignore an agreement with Taiwan. China is only a few steps behind Russia. Maybe if China wasn’t threatening anyone, then the US would not have to stand up to the bully..
@Paul Furey: I really admire the way you are challenging yourself and are willing to see more than just your own spoon fed perspective. Well done Paul, you will become a better, more rounded person.
Great that Hunter Biden’s Laptop scandal is now all delt with.. No federal charge for unlawfully owning an unlicensed firearm and no mention of the 5 million paud to Joe & Hunter from Ukraine ‘business interests’
The US Commerce Secretary says Ireland runs a 'tax scam'. Does he have a point?
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