Households to increase their spend to €2,700 for festive season

An industry body has thrown down the gauntlet to retailers to be ready for Christmas, with households set to spend almost €2,700 during the period.

Retail Ireland, the Ibec group that represents the sector, said its Christmas Retail Monitor 2018 was predicting households will spend an average of €2,690 in shops this December. That figure is about €866 more than any other month of this year and roughly 3% more than Christmas 2017.