Germans to give more to charity, spend less on Christmas presents

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans plan to spend less on Christmas presents this year and will instead open their wallets to charities as the country faces a record influx of refugees, a study showed on Friday. The GfK institute for consumer sentiment said Germans will on average spend 274 euros ($290) on Christmas presents this year - 11 euros, or 4 percent, less than in 2014. The retail sector can expect Christmas sales to total around 14.3 billion euros this year, 5 percent down on last year. But cash will be a popular present, and the 3.5 billion euros expected to change hands under the Christmas tree will eventually benefit retailers, said GfK analyst Wolfgang Adlwarth. At the same time, Germans are giving more to charity: in the first nine months of the year, donations increased by nearly 14 percent. "Apart from the earthquake in Nepal during the spring, this is clearly due to the influx of refugees who have arrived in Germany mainly since September," Adlwarth said. Up to a million asylum seekers are expected to come to Germany this year, more than to any other European country. The charitable trend was particularly strong among those aged around 30. This group expected to spend 24 euros less on presents but increase their donations by 63 euros this year. GfK expects this tendency to persist until the end of the year and even to accelerate as Christmas draws closer, according to the survey, which was conducted before Islamist militants killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13. The most popular presents among Germans are books, toys and clothes. Purchases during the last two months of the year account for a fifth of store sales and as much as a quarter of online retail turnover. ($1 = 0.9454 euros) (Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)