Greek Christmas sales slump 30 percent

Greek retailers said Tuesday that sales fell an estimated 30 percent this Christmas, in the worst festive showing for shop owners in years as the country grapples with a debt crisis and a severe recession.

Preliminary figures from the National Confederation of Greek Commerce, or ESEE, found clothes and shoe sales took the heaviest hit, falling 40 percent compared to Christmas 2010 -- the second straight fall since the crisis broke out in late 2009.

Consumption of food and drinks fell 15 percent, while toy sales suffered least.

"This is no longer remarkable, as nine in ten Greeks are less generous -- out of necessity, not choice," an ESEE statement said.

Greece is heading for a fourth year of recession and has near-record high unemployment, which reached 17.5 percent in September. It has been kept afloat by foreign rescue loans since May 2010, after years of government overspending left the country unable to borrow from money markets and on the brink of bankruptcy.

In return for the vital bailout cash, the government imposed severe austerity measures, including big cuts in pensions and salaries and increases in taxes and retirement ages.

ESEE said the crisis has changed Christmas shopping habits, with two in five consumers opting for low-budget purchases this year.

"There is a change in mood, in (financial) obligations, in priorities and habits," ESEE said.

Hit by dwindling demand and draining liquidity, more and more Greek businesses are failing to pay workers' Christmas pay bonuses. Labor Ministry inspectors said they have received more than 2,000 complaints from employees over nonpayment of the seasonal bonus, which many consumers depend on for their Christmas purchases.

The country's main labor union, the GSEE, said the trend was worrying, and urged authorities to crack down on employers who flout the law.

"During hard times for workers, who have already suffered dramatic pay cuts, nonpayment of salaries or Christmas bonuses aggravates poverty and insecurity," GSEE said in a statement.