FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - German retailers association HDE said Christmas sales have not yet reached the good figures from last year, with consumers being held back by high petrol prices and springlike climate. Retailers hope sales will rise in the remaining two weeks before Christmas, it added. ‘Many consumers feel like buying presents the closer it gets to Christmas,’ Hubertus Pellengahr, spokesman of HDE, said.
HDE said it expects sales during this year’s Christmas shopping season to reach last year’s level, which was boosted by added consumer spending ahead of a value-added tax hike in January 2007. christoph.steitz@thomson.com cs1/vs COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
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