Levels will reach £17bn at Christmas
Consumer spending will reach a record level of£16.9 billion this Christmas - the highest in 12 years - according to Deloitte's annual Christmas Retail survey.

The business advisory firm revealed the average amount spent on gifts per person would be£378, up 22 per cent from last year.

However, anticipated spend on socialising is likely to fall 16 per cent to£121 a person, compared with last year and total spending will rise 7.6 per cent, highlighting a transfer of spend from parties to presents.

Deloitte UK head of retail Tarlok Teji said: 'Gift retailers can look forward to a bumper year, but the big pull back in spend on socialising may not bode well for the leisure industry, as hotels, pubs and restaurants are expected to be hardest hit.

'Expenditure this year on food and drink will be flat and grocery retailers may need to pull out all the stops to attract more customers.'

According to the Deloitte survey, more affordable stocking fillers - such as books and DVDs - are less popular this year, with more expensive, clothes, gift vouchers, jewellery, tickets and MP3 players selling well.

The total expenditure of the 16-24 and 25-34 age groups has increased 32 per cent to£635 a person and 16 per cent to£806 a person, respectively.

Teji adds: 'Although consumers tell us every year they plan to start shopping the month before Christmas, it's interesting to see that a third of us won't have finished all our shopping until Christmas Eve.'

Deloitte head of consumer business Richard Lloyd-Owen said: 'Despite the upswing in expected consumer gift spend and the supermarkets big push into non-food, our research suggests supermarkets are less popular than they were last year and the high street may see a small revival.'