Germans will presumably save on Christmas gifts this year. According to a survey commissioned by the Hamburg-based Stern magazine only 6 percent of Germans plan to spend more than last Christmas and 25 percent said that this time they will pay less for presents.
The great majority of 61 percent want to spend as much money on gifts at the forthcoming Christmas as in 2005. Eight percent said that they had not yet made up their minds on this question or that they would not make gifts at all. If the effect of this intention to save money were not compensated for by a certain buying impetus due to the coming VAT increase, merchants would be faced with quite slack Christmas sales. Fortunately some year-end intentions will remain just that. 