Online sales surge ahead of Christmas holidays

Retail sales have gone up 6.4 percent ahead of the Christmas holiday season, which is 1.4 percent more than it was this time last year. The biggest surge can be see in Internet sales and and courier services, where sales are up more than 24 percent, according to the Czech Statistics Office. Sales of computers are up 18 percent while sports and recreational goods as well as household goods are also up by double digit amounts. Novinky.cz notes that even sales in specialized grocery stores rose 1.1 percent. "All the evidence suggests that households are slowly starting to get ready for Christmas, which will be more extravagant than last year," it quotes Komercni banka economist Monika Junicke as saying. "At the same time, they're beginning to realize that the Czech economy is slowing down and they're creating reserves out of a sense of caution."