Experts warn of '10% Christmas price rise'

15/09/2008

Buying presents, food and drink for a traditional family Christmas might cost ten per cent more this year, experts have suggested.

Business leaders and a top economist have both said that the cost of common gift items such as TVs and clothes will hit many present-buyers in the pocket.

The credit crunch has made it harder to take out cards and loans, while price rises are also currently at a 16-year high of 4.4 per cent a year.

Worse, food inflation has also exceeded ten per cent over recent months - and shows little sign of slowing down.

Speaking to the News of the World, economist Howard Archer at Global Insight said: "The price of clothing and other non-food goods will go up…it's going to be a very difficult Christmas."

Richard Dodd at the British Retail Consortium, a business group, also told the newspaper that big shops were facing a "pincer movement".

On one hand, he said, they felt pressure to put prices up due to rising costs - but, on the other, they did not want to turn customers away because their goods were too expensive.

Tags; Budgeting Advice, Young Family Finances,

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