Dudley Street, Wolverhampton, heaving with Christmas shoppers.

An unbelievable £4 billion will be spent in the UK this weekend as millions of Christmas shoppers go in search of pressies and stock up with festive fare.

Today and tomorrow will become the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

More than 200,000 shoppers will pour through the doors of the Bullring in Birmingham today alone – and 1.1 million will have visited the centre this week.

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In a year that has seen several major stores disappear from the High Street – and news this week that JJB Sports is suffering falling sales and a shortage of stock – the importance of the Christmas period cannot be overestimated.

The British Retail Consortium also revealed this week that sales in November unexpectedly fell. That comes despite aggressive price wars that have seen major discounts on electrical goods.

Its spokesman Richard Dodd said: “The weekend before Christmas is always the busiest, apart from those occasions when Christmas Day falls early in the week.

“With many people starting their holidays yesterday, people are now turning their full attention to Christmas and all the things they still have to buy.

“They will certainly be out in massive numbers today and tomorrow. On an average day in December in the UK around £1 billion is spent in the shops, and you can safely say that this weekend it will be at least double that, so that means a minimum of £4 billion over the two days.”

Tim Walley, Bullring general manager, was today talking up the prospect of a positive Christmas, revealing it bucked a national trend that saw sales on the High Street fall 0.3 per cent between October and November. Most analysts had expected sales to rise by 0.6 per cent last month and the CBI warned this week that retailers are bracing themselves for flat sales in January.

Mr Walley said: “We enjoyed an exceptional start to the festive season with substantial growth in sales during November compared to last year. During December, as footfall has increased to over one million visitors each week, sales continue to soar and look to exceed the rate of growth of the very strong November.

“And we are again expecting in excess of 325,000 visitors to the centre this weekend.”

He said Boxing Day looks set to be another strong trading day for Bullring as Next and Debenhams launch their sales at 7am, while Selfridges will open at 8am with many shoppers looking to pick up reduced designer gear and high street goods.

The yuletide shopping spree was confirmed today by Barclays, which said shoppers were due to shun the economic downturn in favour of festive cheer with record amounts set to be spent on the UK’s high streets.

Figures from the banking giant predict that a record £23bn will be spent on debit cards throughout December – a four per cent increase on the same time last year.

Supermarkets are set to pocket £5bn in their busiest month of the year, whilst more than £1bn will be spent at petrol stations, fuelling the great Christmas getaway.

And the extra bank holiday over the Christmas weekend – on Monday December 28 – is likely to see high streets and shopping centres all over the country heaving with shoppers. Department stores willÊsee their tills ringing as they pull in £650 million of debit card spending this month, while jewellers will take in another £210m.

And, not surprisingly – and despite the recession – restaurants and pubs will have their busiest time of the year with debit cards being used to settle £600m of food and drink bills, with another £75m being spent at off-licences to fill home drinks cabinets.

An equally staggering £17.8bn of cash will be withdrawn from ATMs and banks in December, with the busiest day for “hole in the walls” yesterday, as people break up from work and the party season gets in full swing.

Brian Cunnington, head of debit cards at Barclays, said: “We all know Christmas is the season of goodwill but that usually means it’s the season for spending as well.”

Shoppers have been able to cash in on prices of some goods which have been falling all year, including clothing, footwear and electrical goods. Electrical items have been especially cheap as stores fight for their share of the Christmas spend.

This has led to better-than-expected results for many high street outlets, including Comet, which only this week cemented a return to sales growth. Hot items being snapped up include coffee machines, portable PCs, iPhones and 32-inch televisions. The sales lift comes amid signs of improvement across the board in the UK consumer electronics industry.

Currys and PC World parent DSG International has also reported better trading, with its most recent same-store sales up one per cent compared with a six per cent fall previously.

But there are still plenty of stores that are struggling. Shares in JJB fell this week after it admitted it was braced for a tough Christmas and new year with stock supply problems. The sportswear chain, rescued by a debt restructuring deal earlier this year, saw sales drop 32 per cent in the first three weeks of December.

It said it was struggling to keep stock levels up due to problems getting suppliers to work with them following its recent financial crisis. For JJB – and many others – Christmas and new year will decide whether it continues trading into the next decade or becomes another casualty of Britain’s lingering recession.