Australians are on track to fork out $1.3 billion at shopping centres and stores on Boxing Day, as discounts on food and household items lure shoppers to tap into their shrinking personal budgets. The Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan project that the billion-dollar Boxing Day blitz will spur a $3.

A total of $1.3 billion is expected to be spent on Boxing Day itself, an almost 2 per cent increase on last year's spending figures, data from the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) shows. For the six days following Christmas, it is expected shoppers will spend $3.7 billion across that period, which is 2.7 per cent more than last year.

Although it is predicted that £4.6billion will be spent in today's sales, this is a 2 per cent decrease compared to last year, according to analysis published by Barclays .