Christmas Economics

Over the Christmas 2001 period it was claimed that the average Briton was estimated to be spending £826 on presents, food and drink, found out by the research conducted by debit card provider Switch.

• Those in the North were said to spend most – an average of £919 per person.

• £766 was the amount spent in the Midlands

• And those in the south spent £782

• £10 billion alone was the figure expected for consumers to spend on debit cards alone this is more than half the total for the whole of 2001.

• In the month of December alone, £6.4 billion was spent on store, credit and debit cards.

• Now the British consumers need to repay £22billion on their credit cards alone, with £1,500 being the average for a credit card debit.