Christmas retail sales 'not as good as expected'

Retail Excellence Ireland has said that sales this Christmas have not been as good as anticipated.

The group says it is expecting good value in the post-Christmas sales.

REI says that the lower than anticipated spending levels could mean heavy discounts by shops looking to sell their winter stock.

Deputy CEO of Retail Excellence Ireland Sean Murphy, says the recent mild weather means that winter clothes are in high supply in some retail outlets.

"A lot of them would have stocked up expecting maybe a little bit more sales," he said.

"December started very strongly, building on very strong September , October and Novembers.

"But in the last 2-3 weeks, it has kind of eased off, the good weather is probably associated with that, with the slight lightening in trade.

"A lot of men, for example, haven't bought that winter coat, or their loved ones haven't bought that winter coat.

"We suspect those kind of items will be discounted quite significantly post-Christmas."