YORK'S bumper Christmas went rolling on today with sales shoppers queueing up to defy the economic prophets of doom.

Throughout the United Kingdom the promise of huge price cuts was pulling shoppers from their armchairs and ensuring the Christmas spending spree continued.

City analysts feared the global economic gloom would affect consumers in the run-up to Christmas but they have instead witnessed a surge in spending.

York shoppers waited in long queues at Next in Coney Street to buy their winter bargains as hardened shoppers picked through the rails with a 6am start.

And Marks & Spencer in Pavement buzzed with early sale shoppers hunting for a bargain.

Adam Sinclair, chairman of York Chamber of Trade, said the city centre had enjoyed an "excellent" last seven or eight months.

"We've probably done better than the national trend," he said.

"Visitors have flocked to the city in the light of foot and mouth and the terrorism.

"York is a very special shopping environment and I think the sales figures will be a lot better than last year's flood-related figures."

Ruth Randle, section manager at York's Marks & Spencer Pavement store, said: "Christmas has been very buoyant. This morning we've had a lot of shoppers coming in to pick up a bargain."

Neville Hoyle, manager of Woolworths, in Spurriergate, said: "It has been a brilliant Christmas period for us - we've done very well."

Angela Langan, marketing manager at Browns of York, in Davygate, said: "It has gone extremely well.

"We've been consistently up every week on our sales figures.

"We're optimistic that the sales period will be just as good."

The British Retail Consortium said it was clear shoppers were continuing to ignore "the doom and gloom prophets".

Richard Hyman, chairman at retail analyst Verdict, said shoppers were taking advantage of the low rate of interest, currently four per cent. "Interest rates are so much lower than they have been in modern times and this has a double effect," he said. "First of all it puts more money into people's pockets because of low mortgage repayments. Secondly, as interest rates are so low, people are thinking, what's the point of putting money into a savings account?"

Mr Hyman added shoppers seemed to simply want to enjoy themselves after the tragic events of September 11.

Updated: 13:52 Thursday, December 27, 2001