The summer sales officially start today and bargain hunters can expect bigger savings than usual as businesses try to make up for the lack of sales and entice shoppers into their establishments.

Summer discounts of an average of between 30 and 40 per cent are common place and some are going straight to the 50 and 70 per cent cuts which are not normal at the beginning of the sales which will be on until August 31st.

In Spain shops are forbidden by law to mount sales outside of the official sales period in a bid to protect the smaller businesses but this year even the big department and chain stores have been hit by the spending slow down and have found themselves with huge excesses of stock to move.

Many shop windows have already been displaying discount or special offer signs for a few weeks now in an attempt to pull in more custom. Although having done so outside of the official sales period, this practice is permitted as up until today they have not advertised 'rebajas' (sales) just reductions.

Regards