CHRISTMAS SPENDING

Today's the day when everyone can take back those Christmas presents they don't like, and exchange them for ones that they do. You know, clothes that are the wrong size or colour, items that you already have, or things that are just plain useless.

Depsite talk of crisis, Christmas shopping held up well in Denmark. In the first 24 days of December, spending via Dankort (the ubiquitous debit card that everyone uses here) was Dkr24 billion, up from Dkr22.9 billion in 2010. And that was despite the storms and wet weather, which plagued the month. Dankort doesn't cover everything, but it is a pretty good indicator of total consumption.

The most popular day for shopping this year was Thursday 22 December, when an incredible 3.881.778 payments were made through the system. Including some by me.

Walter Blotscher