Expectations of an SSIA-fuelled Christmas splurge led to earlier-thannormal bookings with media outlets, with agencies urging clients to make decisions as early as August.

Now senior advertising sources report retailers are attempting to boost sales with a last-minute blitz of additional TV and radio ads. Some of the ads will promote discounts at what should be prime retail time.

"So far this year there's a far higher ratio of browsers to buyers than normal. Instead of one out of every five shoppers making a purchase we're seeing one in 12, " said one advertising agency head who asked not to be named.

IRS radio sales, which represents 16 local stations including Cork's Red FM and Dublin's Phantom, reports its own sales being up 35% over last year and a surge in demand for last-minute advertising on scarce broadcast slots.

"I've never seen anything like it, " said IRS managing director John O'Connor on Friday. "I just got off the phone with two stations trying to beg a favour and get ads away . . . they said they couldn't do it for God Himself."

AIB and Bank of Ireland, which account for about 80% of the credit card market, report that spending on plastic has been slower than expected.

"Normally we'd expect to see quite a significant rise in spending beginning from about the second weekend in November, " said Eddie Ryan, head of card marketing at Bank of Ireland. "In the last 10 days, traffic has been up but we thought it would be by more. It's not that people are spending less . . . it's just a slower burning candle than last year."

He believes that the rise in interest rates, which has added more than 1% to the cost of borrowing since last Christmas and is hitting monthly outgoings in many households, is causing people to be more cautious.

"I don't think it will be a bad Christmas but it's looking like we will be well into the month of December before you can know for sure."

Conal Clerkin, head of business development at AIB card issuing, agreed that it was still too early to call.

"We haven't seen the surge in spending of previous years but that's not to say that it won't pick up over the next two to three weeks, " he said. "It's certainly not worse than last year but it is slower than expected."

He speculated that shoppers may have been fooled by a mild autumn, catching them off guard in the countdown to Christmas.