Monday 3rd December 2007
The festive season could help to shore up the UK economy this year after a rocky few months, it has been claimed.
According to Richard Dodd, head of media and campaigns for the British Retail Consortium (BRC), Christmas is arriving at just the right time to help perk up the slowing economy and boost retailers so as to help the overall economy.
It has been suggested that this year Christmas will be worth a massive £12 billion to British retailers and this was demonstrated by the vast number of people on the streets of central London at the weekend.
Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street were all closed to traffic on Saturday for the first time and it is believed that the one million shoppers that took to the car-less streets spent in the region of £100 million on that one day alone.
Commenting on the expected increase in sales during this year's festive period compared to 2006, Mr Dodd said: "We think like-for-like growth will probably be around three per cent or slightly less, according to our figures, which is similar to last year when it was 2.5 per cent like-for-like."
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UK economy
City analysts today warned the government that the British economy is set to witness a recession which could last up to 18 months. Capital Economics predicts that the gross domestic product for the... 
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