Irish retailers won't see a spending boom until next summer at the earliest

Christmas will be busy, but Retail Excellence warns of 'fragile' consumer confidence as CSO reports falling sales volumes

Retailers could be set for a decent Christmas, but may be in for a long wait for any real pick-up in consumer spend.

Retailers are unlikely to see any huge consumer spending boost until next summer at the very earliest — even though Christmas spending is expected to reach around €5.4bn — an industry group has warned.

Retail Excellence said Christmas spending this year should remain in line with what would normally be expected and even with the lockdown upheaval from earlier in the year, 2021 spending value levels, on a whole, should still be up marginally on both 2020 and 2019.