by. Nicholas Ballasy

More consumers are planning to spend more money during the holiday season than the previous year despite a high level of concern over the federal government’s budget battles, according to the annual holiday spending survey conducted by CUNA and the Consumer Federation of America.

In total, 1,002 individuals were interviewed by landline or cell phone during the period of Nov. 7-10.  The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

For this year, 13% said they would spend more compared to 12% in 2012. Those who said they would spend less decreased from 38% in 2012 to 32% this year.

“Last year in terms of forecast we said that based on our survey results we predicted spending growth of somewhere between 3 and a half and four percent. The actual result last year was an increase of 3.6%,” said Bill Hampel, chief economist at CUNA, when the survey results were released on Wednesday at the National Press Club.

“Based on this survey, we’ll use the same prediction that we did last year – that holiday spending this year will increase by between 3 and a half and four percent over last year’s results.”

continue reading »